Virginia Voggenthaler Kisting 1911-2007

VOGGENTHALER, KISTING, EHRLICH, MOUW, OSBURN, HERR, BARTKOWSKI, HALPIN

Posted By: Judi Nicks (email)
Date: 7/26/2007 at 14:00:57

Telegraph Herald
Dubuque, Iowa
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Virginia Voggenthaler Kisting, of 2357 Windsor Ave., died of heart failure at 5:05 p.m. Monday, July 23, 2007, at Mercy Medical Center-Dubuque.

In keeping with Virginia's wishes, please join her family at the funeral Mass at 10 a.m. Thursday at

St. Patrick's Catholic Church. Burial will be in Mount Calvary Cemetery. Private visitation will be held for the family at Behr Funeral Home, 1491 Main St.

She was born on Sept. 5, 1911, the only child of William and Irma Voggenthaler. Virginia's father passed away when she was just 2 years of age. Raised by her mother and schooled at the Visitation Academy, on the day after graduation, at age 16, she began full-time employment at the Voggenthaler Co., a steel firm founded by her grandfather, Ernest J. Voggenthaler.

Admired as a lady of great dignity, she also was respected for her business acumen and ethics. She strove with every effort to be honest and fair. Virginia lived an extraordinarily strong Catholic faith, beginning each day with holy water and a kiss on the crucifix that hangs on the wall in the Voggenthaler Co. office yet today.

She labored 18-hour days, working to bring the firm successfully back from hard times, particularly through the 1960s, weathering a major flood in 1965, which was a devastating blow to the firm, as well as the 1966 death of her aunt, Leona Voggenthaler, daughter of the firm's founder.

Upon the completion of the steel framing for Nativity Church in Dubuque, a major construction project of its time, Virginia was recognized by the Bethlehem Steel Co. as a rare pioneer -- a woman actively directing and administrating a business in the steel industry.

Virginia's life was defined by her integrity. While leading her firm in 1983, when an opportunity for an incentive as a Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) was presented to Virginia, she declined saying, "Despite working all my life in a man's (steel) industry, I've never been given a concession because I'm a woman, and I won't accept one now simply because the government says I'm entitled to it."

She also worked part-time at Christensen's Greenhouse for several years. Virginia had a thorough knowledge and love of flowers, cultivating and nurturing her own extensive rose garden. She derived great joy in sharing fresh cut flowers and pussy willows with friends, and particularly the elderly at Stonehill Care Center.

After 76 1/2 years of employment, Virginia retired (at age 93) from the Voggenthaler Co. in January of 2005, due to declining health.

She was preceded in death by her father, William; her mother, Irma Voggenthaler, in November of 1978; her eldest son, Joseph D. Kisting, on June 29, 1985; her former husband, Joseph F. Kisting, on Jan. 23, 1998; and a grandchild, Brooke Marie Ehrlich, on June 11, 2005.

Surviving to cherish Virginia's memory and follow the example of her remarkable faith are her sons and their wives, Robert M. and Cindy Kisting, Kevin W. and Mary Kisting; a daughter-in-law, Linda Mouw; eight grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; her beloved sister-in-law, Ann B. Kisting, of Elgin, Ill.; and five special nieces, Sue Osburn, Nancy Kisting, Ann Marie Herr, Mary Alice Bartkowski and Helen Halpin.

The family requests no flowers. Virginia enjoyed flowers all her life, and often said, "Please don't waste flowers on me when I die. Give them to an elderly person who has none so they can be enjoyed and appreciated."

The family asks your fervent prayers for Virginia, and invites memorials be sent to: The Power of Prayer, 75 W. 17th St., Dubuque, Iowa 52001; Joseph D. Kisting Memorial, c/o Medical Mission Sisters, 8400 Pine Road, Philadelphia, Pa. 19111; and Norbertine Missions, St. Norbert Abbey, 1016 N. Broadway, De Pere, Wis. 54115.

Virginia's favorite: Success

Success is speaking words of praise, in cheering other people's ways. In doing just the best you can, with every task and every plan. It's silence when your speech would hurt, politeness when your neighbor's curt. It's deafness when the scandal flows, and sympathy with other's woes. It's loyalty when duty calls, it's courage when disaster falls. It's patience when the hours are long, it's found in laughter and in song. It's in the silent time of prayer, in happiness and in despair. In all of life and nothing less, we find the thing we call success. Author unknown.