Winifred Van Oehl, 05 Mar 1918 – 24 Jul 2013

VAN OEHL, OLSON, ENGELBERT, DAVIES, JOHNSON

Posted By: Sandy Ficken (email)
Date: 8/14/2013 at 15:32:01

Winifred Van Oel, 95

Funeral service for Winifred Van Oel, 95, Des Moines, was held July 29, at Iles Funeral Home, Des Moines. She died peacefully July 24, 2013.
Memorials may be made to the Winifred Van Oel Nursing Scholarship at Grandview College.

Winifred Van Oehl was born March 5, 1918, in Marengo, the daughter of Herman and Luella (Engelbert) Olson. The eldest daughter of eight children, she was left to help raise her siblings after her mother’s death from bone cancer when Winifred was 14.

Valedictorian of her high school class at Hilton Consolidated School, she was a trailblazer. When few women were earning advanced degrees, she earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Iowa and her master’s degree in nursing education from the University of Chicago.

She was very proud of her brothers, Louis, Robert, Russell and Max, who all served in the armed forces during World War II and she planned to follow them by joining the cadet nurse corp in Iowa. She was in cadet training to be an Army nurse when World War II ended, so although she did not serve, she was very proud of her family that did. She went on to serve as director of the pediatric nursing department at University of Iowa Hospitals and taught nursing at Grandview College, Des Moines.

She married Wallace Van Oel in Iowa City in 1955. She was a member of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Sigma Theta Tau, the Iowa Nurses Association and PEO.

Van Oel is survived by her sons, Steve and Marcella, Seattle, Wash., and Rick, Des Moines; sisters, Evelyn Davies, Indianola; Ann Johnson, Coon Rapids, and one brother, Max Olson, Cambridge.

She was preceded in death by her husband, in 2002, and brothers Louis, Robert, Russell and Gene.

The Williamsburg Journal Tribune, Iowa County Obituaries, 08 Aug 2013