Nodland, Thomas

NODLAND, RORHEIM, ROBERTS, MCCAULEY

Posted By: Pat Ludeke (email)
Date: 5/27/2013 at 14:09:44

Thomas Nodland, 86, of 2405 S. 3rd St., Clear Lake, died Tuesday, July 1, 2003
at the Oakwood Care Center, Clear Lake. Memorial services were held Monday, July
7, at Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, Clear Lake, with the Rev. Dean Hess
officiating. Inurment was in Memorial Park Cemetery, Mason City, Iowa with
military honors by the Clear Lake V.F.W. Family suggests memorials to the Thomas
Nodland memorial fund.

Thomas was born Aug. 3, 1916 in Badger, Iowa the son of Solvie B. and Josephine
(Rorheim) Nodland. He started school in a one room school near Kenyon, Minn. He
went to four different schools in the eight years they lived in Minnesota and
five different schools in Iowa before completing his education in Eagle Grove,
Iowa.

Thomas served in the United States Army during WWII and was awarded two bronze
stars for the campaign he was involved in. He spent one year and eight months in
the U.S. as an infantrymen guarding the coast of California from a Japanese
attack. He then spent one year and nine months in foreign service in the Army
Engineers, attaining the rank of Technician 4th Grade. He was involved in the
invasion of Saipan and also Okinawa. He was on Okinawa when the atomic bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m., Aug. 6, 1945 when a fireball in the morning
sky changed history. The bomb ended World War II. Thomas was discharged from the
army Jan. 14, 1946.

Following the service, Thomas farmed and did various things. He married Viola
(McCauley) Roberts on July 25, 1955 in Canton, S.D. He farmed in the Klemme,
Iowa area for 25 years, Rockwell, Iowa area for three years and retired from
farming in 1977 and moved into Clear Lake in 1978.
Thomas and Viola liked to quilt and be in church activities, garden, take walks
and look at the lake. He was a member of Zion Lutheran Church, Clear Lake,
I.O.O. F. Lodge, American Legion and Farm Bureau.

Thomas is survived by his stepchildren, Bertha Tackle and her husband, Charles,
Webster City, Iowa and Roger Roberts Sr. and his wife, Sharlene, Laurel, Iowa;
14 step-grandchildren; 14 step-great-grandchildren; several
step-great-great-grandchildren; two sisters, Bernice Glestad, Wanamingo, Minn.
and Segney Crement and her husband, John, Belle Air Bluffs, Fla.; two brothers,
Tory Nodland and his wife, Alta, Spirit Lake, Iowa and Virgil "Jory" Nodland and
his wife, Virginia, Lakewood, Colo.; a sister-in-law, Althea Nodland,
Chanhassen, Minn.; thirteen nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife; and a brother, Arnold
Nodland.