Gilbert Leonard Amdahl 1909-1967

AMDAHL

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 8/13/2011 at 01:24:02

Attack Cause of Death
Lakota – A Rock Island Lines freight train conductor whose body was found here Monday [March 20, 1967] night died of a heart attack, says Dr. R. F. Snyder, Kossuth County medical examiner. Funeral services will be held in Estherville Thursday for the victim, Gilbert Amdahl, 58, Estherville, who fell from the train caboose. He is survived by his widow and four children. (Waterloo Daily Courier, Waterloo, IA, March 22, 1967)

Missed at Rake; Found Dead at Lakota
An Estherville railroadman was found dead at Lakota Monday night after apparently suffering a heart attack.

He was Gilbert Amdahl, 58, a Rock Island Railroad employee, one of a crew of four on a train bound for Albert Lea.

Amdahl, a brakeman, was missed by other crew members when the train reached Rake.

The crew notified N. J. Mortiz, agent at Estherville, who called Marvin Austin, agent at Lakota. Austin found Amdahl lying beside the tracks. The coroner pronounced Amdahl dead of a heart attack.

Brakeman Don Bisgaard had met Amdahl beside the train when it stopped at Lakota, after which Bisgaard went to the front of the train and Amdahl went toward the rear.

That was the last Amdahl was observed until he was found by Austin. Crewmen were not certain whether he was on the ground when the attack occurred, or whether he was on the platform of the caboose and had fallen off when stricken. (Rake Register, Thompson, IA, March 23, 1967)