CONNELL, James Francis

CONNELL STOCKMAN, ASHLAND, OHLROGGE, MAGEE, LOVELL

Posted By: Pat Ludeke (email)
Date: 6/23/2013 at 11:19:42

James Francis Connell, 78, longtime Clear Lake businessman, died Wednesday, May
1, 2002 at the Muse Norris Inpatient Unit-North Iowa in Mason City.

Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 11, at the First
Congregational Church in Clear Lake with the Rev. Thomas Healey officiating.
Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. Friday at Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel.
Interment will be in the Clear Lake Cemetery.

Memorials may be directed to the First Congregational Church, 205 West 10th
Avenue North, Clear Lake; Hospice of North Iowa, 232 2nd Street SE, Mason City
or the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Insurance Exchange Building, Suite 444,
505 5th Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50309.

Jim was born Nov. 27, 1923 in Iowa City, Iowa, the son of Thomas and Agnes
(Stockman) Connell. He graduated from St. Patrick's Parochial School in Iowa
City, attended the University of Iowa and then volunteered for the U.S. Army in
World War II. He served as an enlisted instructor in the Parachute School in
Fort Benning, Ga, was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, Infantry, in June 1945
and served in the European theater. He was recalled to active duty in 1951 and
served as a rifle platoon leader with the 3rd Division in Korea until he was
discharged as 1st Lieutenant in 1952.

He graduated from the University of Iowa in 1949 and worked at Lampert Lumber
Company in Iowa City. He married Marcia Jean Ashland Sept. 3, 1949 and they
moved to Clear Lake in 1950, where he worked at Woodford-Wheeler Lumber Company.
He served as general manager there for over 50 years. He was general manager
of Lake Development Company from 1954 until his death. Jim was a member of the
Clear Lake Independent Telephone Company Board of Directors since 1962, serving
several years as treasurer. He served on the Clear Lake Bank and Trust Board of
Directors from 1969 to 2001.

Throughout the years, he was active in a number of community organizations and
served as president of the following organizations: Clear Lake Economic
Development Corporation (founding member and a board member for many years),
Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, Clear Lake Rotary Club and Toastmasters.
He also served as a director on the All Veterans Social Center Board and is a
longtime member of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars and a member
of Forty and Eight and the Masonic Lodge. Jim also was chairman of the Board of
Deacons, First Congregational Church and was a director for the Northwestern
Lumbermen's Association, a national trade organization.

He was one of four local businessmen who re-opened the Surf in 1970 after it had
been closed to ensure it would continue as a community asset. That group owned
it for 24 years. Jim and his family ensured that one of the last remaining
lakeshore woodland properties on Clear Lake remain undeveloped and open to the
public by donating a permanent conservation easement for the Woodford-Ashland
Lone Tree Woods Nature Area to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation.

Jim is survived by his wife, Marcia, of Clear Lake; daughter, Sarah Ohlrogge,
her husband, Dr. Dennis Ohlrogge, of Onalaska, Wis.; daughter, Susan
Connell-Magee, her husband, Kevin G. Magee, of Madison, Wis.; daughter, Janet
Lovell and her husband, Thomas Lovell, of Clear Lake; two grandsons, Christopher
Lovell of Clear Lake and Erik Ohlrogge of Onalaska; two brothers, William
Connell (Dorothe) of Iowa City and Robert Connell (Evelyn) of Reno, Nev.;
numerous nieces and nephews and grand nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents; two brothers, Joseph Connell and Thomas
Connell; and a sister, Marie Johnson.