MEESTER, Daniel A. 1907-1969

MEESTER, HAREN, HENZE, SHAW

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 7/25/2012 at 09:02:49

Funeral Saturday for Dan Meester, Local Cafe Owner

Funeral services for Daniel A. Meester, 61, Grundy Center cafe owner, were held at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Bethany Presbyterian Church with Rev. E. H. Buschman officiating.

Burial was in Rose Hill Cemetery, Grundy Center.

Mr. Meester, Past Grand Master of the IOOF Lodge of Iowa, died Wednesday morning at Allen Hospital in Waterloo following lung surgery Jan. 9. He had been in the hospital since Dec. 27.

Casket bearers at the funeral were members of the Grand Lodge Degree Team at the time Mr. Meester was installed as Grand Master in 1966.

They were Vernon Garner, Shell Rock; Sam Cuvelier, Janesville; Myron Aloen, Guthrie Center; Wilford Ward, Norway; Charles Dewey, Waverly; and Delbert Gerholdt, Janesville.

Daniel A. Meester was born on Oct. 15, 1907, the son of Joe and Kathryn Haren Meester, in Pleasant Valley township.

He married Justena Henze on June 22, 1932. The couple lived in Grundy Center where she died in 1949.

On May 26, 1953 he married Mrs. Ivadel Shaw.

Mr. Meester served 20 years as bookkeeper for the Fern Creamery and resigned in 1964 when he and Mrs. Meester purchased the Grundy Cafe. In addition to owning and operating the cafe, he had been bookkeeper the past three years for Paul Rewerts, Inc.

He was elected Grand Master of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Iowa in 1966 and he served until the fall of 1967.

He was also a member of the Bethany Presbyterian Church, which he served three years as Elder; and he was a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge of Grundy Center.

Survivors include his widow; two sons, Duane of Grundy Center and James of Hudson; three daughters, Lorene, a teacher in the United States Department of Defense schools at Naples, Italy, who returned for the funeral, Mrs. Roger (Mary Jo) Elmore of Williamsburg, Ky and Kathryn Iris (Kim) at home; two stepsons, Gene Shaw of Philadelphia, Pa., and Jim of Cedar Falls; his mother, Mrs. Kathryn Meester of Grundy Center; one brother, Harold of Holland; and two sisters, Mrs. John (Gladys) VanDeest and Mrs. Chris (Josephine) Flater, both of Grundy Center.

Engelkes-Abels Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 23 January 1969