Oren Henry Hagen 1924 – 2011

HAGEN, WICHMANN, ROEMIG, BEER

Posted By: Sandy Ficken (email)
Date: 4/18/2011 at 15:27:34

Private family burial services for Oren H. Hagen, 86, Homestead, were held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 5, at St. John’s Lutheran Church Cemetery, Homestead. He died Feb. 1, 2011, at Colonial Manor of Amana.

A celebration of life memorial service will be held at a later date at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Homestead.

Memorials may be made to St. John’s Lutheran Church, the Amana School Community Library, Caring Bridge at www.caringbridge.org or a charity of the donor’s choice.

Oren Henry Hagen was born Sept. 30, 1924, on a farm near Homestead, the son of Rudolph F. and Elsie M. Wichmann Hagen. He graduated from Marengo High School and served as a master sergeant in the Asiatic Pacific Theater in World War II and the repatriation thereafter in Korea. With the exception of his military service, he spent his entire life in Iowa and generally within a short distance of his birthplace.

He married Marie Henrietta Roemig Sept. 13, 1947, at St. John’s Lutheran Church near Homestead. The couple lived and raised a family in Homestead. His occupation throughout his life was farming but his avocation was volunteer and public service.

During his life, he served as a long-term member and president of the Amana Community School Board, chairman of the Iowa County Democratic Party, as a Cub Scout leader, as a church treasurer and elder at St. John’s Lutheran Church, as a founding member and long-term director of Colonial Manor of Amana, and in countless other positions in volunteer, church or public organizations.

He was an avid reader and loved to engage those he met in spirited conversation on any type of current affairs or politics.

Hagen is survived by one son and his wife, Howard and Lynn Hagen, West Des Moines; three grandsons, Matthew, White Plains, N.Y.; Philip, West Des Moines, and Thomas, Minneapolis, Minn., and one sister and her husband, Amanda and Herbert Beer.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 58 years, Marie, and one son, Quentin, in 1973.

The Williamsburg Journal Tribune, Iowa County obituaries, Feb. 10, 2011, page 3