Kunkel, Doug - 1956-2009

EDEL, EDWARDS, ELLIS, KEITH, KUNKEL, MALECHEK, MATTESON, NORTON, PIERCE, YOUNG

Posted By: JCGS Volunteer
Date: 4/28/2009 at 19:43:56

Doug Kunkel, 52, of Newton, died early Saturday morning, April 11, 2009, at his home while in the care of his loving family and the Jasper County Hospice.
A funeral mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Haverhill with Father Don Czapla officiating.
He will be laid to rest in the Immaculate Conception Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Mitchell Family Funeral Home in Marshalltown with a 7 p.m. vigil service.
A fellowship will follow the interment at the Haverhill shelter house in the park. The Mitchell Family Funeral home is caring for Doug and his family. To friends and family attending Doug’s service, you are welcome to wear casual clothing in his honor.
To celebrate his memory, take five minutes to appreciate and enjoy the outdoors this week.
For condolences, please visit www.mitchellfh.com.
Born on Oct. 13, 1956, in Marshalltown, he was the son of Elmer and Shirley (Malechek) Kunkel. He graduated from the Marshalltown High School in 1975 and later the University of Iowa with a degree in Economics and a minor in Archeology in 1980.
Doug was a self-employed contractor and a master carpenter. His favorite times were camping on any stream or in any wooded area, canoeing and fishing the Iowa River and trout streams of Northeast Iowa. He also enjoyed the pond and timber at the farm, and hunting Morel mushrooms.
Doug loved having his family and friends join him and Laurie for cookouts and fireworks at the Kunkel farm.
History, anthropology and genealogy occupied a lot of his time, as well as searching the fields and streams for Native American artifacts and old records and cemeteries for past family and friends buried there.
Left to cherish his memory are Laurie, his loving wife whom he married in an outdoor ceremony at Wehrman’s Prairie near Haverhill on Aug. 29, 1992; three children, Jason Matteson and his children Josie, Jackson and Jaydalin; Ben (Dawn) Matteson and daughters Emma and Chloe; and Casey Edwards all of Newton; his father Elmer (Judy) Kunkel; sisters Geri (Craig) Kunkel-Pierce, Mary Jo (Terry Young) Kunkel and family, all of Haverhill; stepbrother Tharren (Dawn) Keith and family of Washington; stepsister Tori Keith of Mesquite, Texas; his mother-in-law Mary Lou Norton; sisters-in-law Peg Edel and family, all of Marshalltown and Nancy Ellis and family of Muscatine; brothers-in-law Doug (Jodi) Norton and family and Bob Norton, all of Marshalltown; and many relatives and a host of friends.
In death he has rejoined his mother Shirley, father-in-law Jim Norton, brother-in-law Jim Edel and his grandparents.
Source: Newton Daily News; Monday, April 13, 2009