POTGIETER, Martha 1894-1968

POTGIETER, POTGETER

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 8/17/2014 at 14:56:36

Martha Potgieter Dies At Steamboat Rock On Thursday

Funeral services for Martha Potgieter were held Saturday afternoon at 2:00 o'clock at the Brandt and Fritz Funeral Home in Ackley. Prayer services were held at the family home in Steamboat Rock at 1:30 o'clock. Rev. Richard Miller conducting.

Martha Potgieter was born in Steamboat Rock on November 25, 1894, the sixth child of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Potgieter, and the first of their nine children to be taken in death.

She attended school in her home town, was graduated from the University of Iowa, and took advanced degrees there and in Columbia University, New York.

Her career was spent in teaching in rural schools of Hardin County; in her home town and in neighboring Eldora; later in Antioch College, Ohio; in the University of Hawaii; one winter in Queens College, London; and last in the University of Connecticut.

After retirement she spent two years as a volunteer for the Unitarian Service Committee in rural Nigeria, West Africa. There she started clinics where mothers could get help in learning to feed and care for their children. As her work progressed, she trained Nigerian nurses to continue the clinics after she left.

After returning from Africa, she lived in Minneapolis for three years, where she worked part time as a volunteer in a settlement house.

She died of cancer in Steamboat Rock last Thursday after a long period of suffering.

The deceased is survived by her eight brothers and sisters: Janna Burgess of Seattle; Louise Mathison of Vancouver, Washington; Sophia Rowan and Fannie and George of Steamboat Rock; John of Napa, California; Fred of Rockford, Ill.; Alice of St. Paul, Minn.

--The Grundy Register/Wellsburg Herald (Grundy Center, Iowa), 11 April 1968, pg 9