Duerr, Raymond 1885-1947

DURR, DUERR, KLEINLEIN, DEAR, GILBERT, WEIR, MANN

Posted By: Mary Durr (email)
Date: 2/17/2008 at 17:44:16

RAYMOND DUERR

Ray Duerr, 62, Dies Here

Raymond Duerr, 62, superintendent of Aspen Grove cemetery since 1921, died Tuesday at 9:15 a.m. at his home, 1336 Corse street, after an extended illness.

He was born in McGregor, March 26, 1885, the son of John and Augusta (Kleinlein) Duerr**, and was educated in McGregor high school and Grinnell college, and received his bachelor of science degree from the University of Iowa in 1910 and his civil engineering degree in 1915.

January 25, 1922, he married Birdie E. Dear, in Burlington, who survives. Also surviving are 4 sisters, a brother and several nieces and nephews at McGregor.

Duerr came to Burlington in 1910 as assistant city engineer and held the post until 1914 when he became county engineer. In 1916 he became Van Buren county engineer and resigned that post in 1919 to accept a position with the Near East Relief doing reconstruction work and bridge building in Asia Minor.

He returned to Burlington in 1921 as cemetery superintendent. He was a member of the American cemetery association and was president of Iowa Cemetery Officials from 1936 to 1938. He was active in committee work in both organizations and was a member of Des Moines Lodge No. 1, AF&AM, Royal Arch Masons, Royal and Select Masters of Iowa, life member of Kaaba Shrine, Davenport; life member Iowa Alumni association, American Society of Civil Engineers, Carthage Lake club, Chamber of Commerce, and was active in civic projects.

Duerr served as secretary of the Aspen Grove Cemetery association after the death of George Waldschmidt in 1945.

Services will be held at the home at a time to be announced later. Burial will be in Aspen Grove cemetery. The body will be taken to the home from Prugh's chapel Wednesday morning.

Unknown newspaper.

**Duerr or Durr --- In our family genealogy papers it is reported that Raymond's mother, Augusta, changed the spelling of Durr to Duerr. All papers from Germany and Raymond's father Johannes's marriage license spell it Durr.

Raymond was born March 26, 1885, in McGregor, Iowa and died September 9, 1947, with burial as stated in above obituary. I think 3 of Raymond's surviving sisters were: Mrs. Arthur (Mable) Gilbert, Mrs. George W. (Florence) Weir, Mrs. Archie (Augusta) Mann and the brother was Charles G. Duerr.