POWELL, John Marshall

POWELL, WILSON, KIRCHNER, BELL, SONDROL, HALBERG, GRANGARD, WPRJODE ROSELAND, WHITE, FAIRFIELD, THOMA, BRODT, HANSON

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 3/26/2018 at 20:23:06

Obituary ~ John Marshall Powell
November 21, 1913 ~ November 16, 1995

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
November 19, 1995

CLEAR LAKE -- John M. Powell, 83, died Thursday (Nov. 16, 1995) at GAR-LIN House, Nora Springs.

His body has been donated to the University of Iowa Anatomical Department for scientific purposes.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday (Nov. 30,1995) at Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, 101 N. Fourth St., Clear Lake. The family will be at the funeral home one half hour before the service to greet friends.

Mr. Powell was born Nov. 21, 1913, at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the son of Judge Thomas B. Powell and Mary (Wilson) Powell. After high school, he graduated Cum Laude from Coe College and earned his law degree from the University of Iowa Law School.

He served his country during World War II in the Pacific, then returned to Iowa where he set up a law practice and served as Clerk of Court for Cedar County at Tipton, Iowa. It was there that he met, fell in love with, and married Dorothy Katherine Kirchner Bell Powell. In 1956 they moved to Clear Lake, where he entered a law partnership with Thorkel E. Sondrol Jr., his law school roommate and friend.

In 1966, he left law practice and became trust officer at the First National Bank in Mason City. In 1969, the couple moved to Mason City. He retired from the bank in 1975, and in 1985, they moved back to Clear Lake. In 1991, Dorothy died, leaving John to miss her greatly.

In 1993, he moved to the Gar-Lin house in Nora Springs, where he met and was cared for by Linda and Garrett Crispell. The couple have become like family, showing him compassion, devotion and love until his death.

John loved our mother, his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, Linda and Garrett, as well as books, learning, bird watching, good food, jazz, trading stories with his friends, cards, beauty in all forms, sports, sunsets and Iowa. However, his abiding passion was golf

He imparted to his children a love of words rightly set, beauty, respect for our mother, the belief in justice and the goodness of people, a joy in knowledge, love of travel and adventure. He taught his children the beauty of anything done well and to meet the day with a hug and a smile. They will miss him.

Keeping in mind the Powell's love of books, we ask that memorials be made to the Clear Lake Public Library.

His children are Dr. James R. Bell and his wife, Barbara, Des Moines, Iowa; and their children, Dr. Jim Bell and his wife, Shelly, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and their four daughters, Terri (Bell) and her husband, Dale Halberg, Scottsdale, Ariz., and their two sons; Karen (Bell) and her husband, Tim Grangard, Waconia, Minn., and their two daughters; Sean Bell; Pat and Kristin Bell, Iowa City, Iowa; Monica Worhide and Mark Worhide; Dorothy "Dottie" Jean Bell Roseland Puffer White and her husband, Jim, Fairfield, Virginia; and her children, Kelli (Roseland) and her husband, Rob Thoma, Virginia Beach, Va., and their daughter; Dana (Roseland) and her husband, Scott Brodt, Apple Valley, Minn., and their two sons; Jill Roseland, who followed her grandfather into the law, Newport News, Virginia; Merry Kay Powell Hanson, Clear Lake, Iowa, and her son, John Hanson, Coralville, Iowa.

Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, 101 N. Fourth St., Clear Lake, Iowa

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, March of 2018