FREESE, Dick 1906-1994

FREESE, RIPPENA, MEINTS

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 12/16/2016 at 09:37:10

Dick Freese Services Held

Diederich (Dick) Gerhard Freese, 88, of Steamboat Rock, passed away on Wednesday, August 10, at the Grundy County Memorial Hospital Long Term Care Unit in Grundy Center of natural causes.

Funeral services were held Saturday, August 13, at 1:30 p.m. at the First Christian Reformed Church, rural Wellsburg with Rev. Thomas Vos officiated. Burial followed in the church cemetery.

Pallbearers were Eric Meints, Larry Meints, Dennis Meints, Bradley Meints, Douglas Freese and Eldon Nederhoff. Honorary pallbearers were Heather Freese, Shari Freese and Theresa Freese.

He was born on July 10, 1906, in Leezdorf, Ostfriesland, Germany, the son of Harm Engelken and Okeline Gernandine (Rippena) Freese. He came to America by himself in 1923. He worked for farmers in Hardin and Grundy counties.

In 1928, he moved to the Walter H. Bakker family farm in the Lincoln Center area where he made his home until he married Ella Meints on April 6, 1938, in the First Christian Reformed Church parsonage. Dick and Ella farmed west of Wellsburg. In 1985, they moved to the Long Term Care Unit at the Grundy County Memorial Hospital in Grundy Center.

He was a member of the First Christian Reformed Church, where he served as Sunday School and Catechism Teacher, Deacon and Elder for many years.

He is preceded in death by his wife Ella in 1991; his parents; 3 brothers, Theodore, Harm Ludwig and Karl of Germany; 1 sister, Hilke of Germany; 3 half-brothers, Friedrich of Chicago, Illinois, Peter Carl and Hermann of Steamboat Rock; and 3 half-sisters, Teelke and Frieda of Texas and Nelde of Arkansas.

He is survived by his 2 sons, Lu Vern and his wife, Sue Lynne of Conrad and Darrell and his wife Sharon of Steamboat Rock, and their children, Theresa, Heather, Shari and Douglas of Steamboat Rock; 2 brothers, Gerhard and Johannes of Germany; and 1 sister, Frieda of Germany.

The Doyen-Abels Funeral Home of Wellsburg was in charge of the arrangements.

--The Grundy Register/Wellsburg Herald (Grundy Center, Iowa), 18 August 1994, pg 9