HARVEY EASTON ROBERTS 1871-1949

EASTON, ROBERTS, MARSTON, BLESSIN, TEMPLETON

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 3/22/2005 at 18:53:53

Funeral Services Held For H. E. Roberts, Town Benefactor

Funeral services are being held this afternoon at the Community Presbyterian Church for H. E. Roberts, 77, lifelong resident of this community, who passed away at Postville Hospital on Sunday. The services are being conducted by Rev. Walter T. Martin, pastor of the Community Church, assisted by Rev. R. F. Galloway, D. D., a former pastor. A. L. Peterson, long associated with Mr. Roberts, will also have a part in the service. Mrs. Walter T. Martin and Mrs. John Falb, Jr. will sing at the service.

In the passing of Harvey Easton Roberts on Sunday, October 30, 1949, Postville lost one of her oldest native sons, perhaps the oldest of those born here who have lived here continuously.

Born December 2, 1871, he was the son of Hall Roberts and Maria Easton Roberts. He graduated from Postville High School with the class of 1889, from Iowa College at Grinnell, class of 1893, and then spent a year at the University of Wisconsin.

Afterward he associated himself with the seed and feed business, taking full charge in 1916 upon the death of his father, carrying on the business under the name of "Hall Roberts' Son." This he has made his vocation and under his hand it has developed and considerably expanded.

As one of the founders, a president, and long time program committee chairman of the Postville Commercial Club, he was an active and a faithful member, and in part at least, responsible for the general high level of its meetings. The Memorial Hall, the school and hospital all owe much to his promotion.

Mr. Roberts was early affiliated with the Congregational Church under the Reverend Mr. Ferner and there began his interest in young peoples work, which grew in college and which he kept all through life. He was active in the Christian Endeavor Society in which he held local and state offices. Many will remember the Flower Mission which was one of their projects and in which the whole town participated. He was also a stay in the Sunday School where he completed a full half century of teaching young boys' classes before failing health forced him to relinquish his post.

The extent of his benefactions is amazing, including, beside substantial sums to his college and church through the years, the provision of college or technical training to at least seven young persons not of his family; the support of a traveling anti-narcotics lecturer; and provision for a foreign missionary in the field for many years. The list shows schools and help agencies from Father Flanagan and the Salvation Army to the Friends Service Committee. Everyone who ever carried a subscription paper around this town knew that he could count on a good start-off from Mr. Roberts or the closing of the gap at the end. He achieved the unique quality of spirit in which his chief satisfaction, outside his family, lay in giving. This was not confined to money for he was generous with care, thought and personal effort as well.

Surviving are his wife, Florence Marston Roberts, two sons, Hall and Frank, and daughter Nancy, and two sisters, Bessie, Mrs. Otto James Blessin of Pasadena, California, and Ruth, Mrs. Herbert Templeton of Portland, Oregon.

Postville Herald - contributed by Mary Durr