Myrtle I. Faldorf Dockal 1911-2007

FALDORF, DOCKAL, COOK, CHRISTIANSEN, SALZMAN, LILES, BURRIGHT, ROGERS

Posted By: Judi Nicks (email)
Date: 1/17/2007 at 10:56:50

Myrtle I. Dockal, 95, of Heritage Manor, formerly of 1155 S. Grandview Ave., died Friday, Jan. 12, 2007, at Heritage Manor, having lived since 1972 with an artificial aortic valve.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at St. John's Lutheran Church. Burial will be in Rockdale Cemetery. Friends may call from 4 to 7 p.m. Thurs-day at Egelhof, Siegert & Casper Westview Funeral Home, 2659 Kennedy Road. Friends also may call after 10 a.m. Friday at the church.

She was born to Frederick William and Mary Melinda (Cook) Faldorf on Aug. 3, 1911, in Dubuque, at the home her father built at 1155 S. Grandview Ave. She lived at that address for more than 90 years until her move to Heritage Manor.

Myrtle's mother was the child of early Iowa pioneers who settled in La Motte, Iowa, in 1843. Her father came alone in 1882 to New York from Bremen, Germany, eager to see the "New World." He bought land in Dubuque, where he had dairy cattle and established the Grandview Avenue Dairy with delivery of milk to all parts of the city. Myrtle helped her father deliver milk from his dairy and learned much about people. Her reward for her work was a double dip ice cream cone from the Sanitary Dairy. Once she was so eager to get the ice cream cone that she jumped out of the delivery truck and ran through newly laid cement. Myrtle donated part of the family farm to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation for the Faldorf-Dockal Woodland Preserve.

Myrtle graduated from Dubuque Senior High School in 1929. Myrtle's father died in 1928, but Myrtle and her sister continued their education by taking turns staying home to help their widowed mother. In 1933, Myrtle received a bachelor of arts degree "cum laude" in chemistry and biology with minors in English and psychology from the University of Dubuque. She was a longtime member of Ferdinand DiTilla's university orchestra and his augmented symphony orchestra in which she played first violin. She also studied art and violin at Clarke College and played first violin in the Clarke College orchestra.

She earned a master of science degree in plant physiology with a minor in comparative anatomy in 1939 from Iowa State University. She was elected to membership in Sigma Delta Epsilon, women's national research fraternity and to Psi Chi, national psychology fraternity.

Each summer during the 1930s, she attended the two-week session of the American School of Wildlife Protection (Wildlife School), which was held on the Heights at McGregor, Iowa. Lectures and field trips were given by professors from various universities. This was the only school of its kind in the United States. It was discontinued during World War II.

During the summer of 1932, plans were made by Annette Christiansen (Buol), Mrs. Samuel Salzman and Myrtle Faldorf (Dockal) to start the first Girl Scout troop in Dubuque. This troop became Troop 1 of St. John's Lutheran Church and was registered by the National Girl Scout Office, Inc. of New York in January 1933. Annette became Captain and Myrtle became First Lieutenant. Both served as leaders for several years. Myrtle was nature advisor for the first two-week Girl Scout camp in 1935, held at the Boy Scout Camp near Five Points.

Myrtle also did substitute teaching in all grades of the public school system under a blanket teaching certificate that she had earned. She taught biology, English and Shakespeare in the University of Dubuque's Summer School for several years.

On May 21, 1942, Myrtle and James Arthur Dockal were married in St. John's Lutheran Church. Myrtle had been confirmed at St. John's in 1927, was a longtime Sunday School teacher, sang in the choir and took part in the church's various organizations over the years. Myrtle and James celebrated 60 happy years together. James died on Oct. 26, 2002.

In 1963 to 1964, Myrtle was laboratory instructor in the University of Dubuque's Biology Department. It was a worthwhile and enlightening experience at the university level but demanded too much of her family time, which she treasured; therefore, she decided to go back to full time homemaking.

She enjoyed working in the family home and yard, traveling, hiking and playing tennis, canoeing on the Wisconsin River, dinners at home with close friends followed by good conversation and card or board games. She was a member of the Audubon Club, the Astronomy Club and the Mississippi Trails Club, where she met her husband.

Surviving are Myrtle's daughter, Suzanne Marie, historian for Buffalo National River Park Service, and husband, James Liles, of Yellville, Ark.; a son, Dr. James Allan Dockal, professor of Geology at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington; granddaughter, Katherine Melinda Burright, and husband, Scott, of Laramie, Wyo.; and grandson, Jonathan Charles Rogers, of Russellville, Ark.; and former son-in-law, Charles Rogers, of Yellville.

In addition to her husband, Myrtle was also preceded in death by her parents; and sisters, Rubie, Mable, Anna and Gladys.

Memorials may be made to Hospice of Dubuque and the Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.

A special thanks to Dr. Charles Longo for his longtime and faithful care of Myrtle; to her friend, Millie Whitt, the caring staff of Heritage Manor Nursing Home; Hospice of Dubuque, especially nurse Amy C.; and all friends, doctors and personnel who helped brighten and lengthen her last years.