Pye, Will A. – d. 1944

NIELSON, PYE

Posted By: Donna Sloan Rempp (email)
Date: 8/9/2016 at 14:11:40

W. A. Pye, Monroe, Dies
Prominent School Man; Was Serving As Newburg Superintendent
Monroe – Will A. Pye, 69, veteran Jasper county school figure and superintendent of the Newburg schools for the past two years, died suddenly Sunday morning of a heart attack at his home in Monroe.
He awakened at 6 a.m. and was ill and called the family. He died 45 minutes later.
Mr. Pye had suffered a heart attack last spring, but was believed to have recovered and was enjoying good health. He had resumed direction of school affairs at Newburg again this fall.
He stopped in at The Daily News office at Newton Saturday morning with a report of the Newburg basketball game of the night before as he was enroute to his home in Monroe and chatted with the News folks about the Prospect for the Newburg teams this season.
Home in Monroe
Mr. Pye had made his home in Monroe for the last 11 years. He served as superintendent of the Monroe schools for eight years retiring a little over three years ago. With the current shortage of school personnel, however, he was prevailed upon to help out and handled the superintendent’s duties at Maxwell for about six months. For the past two years he was at Newburg.
Prior to coming to Monroe, Mr. Pye was head of the Toledo schools for eight years and before that was superintendent at Eldora for nine years.
He was a native of Monona, Ia. He graduated from Cornell college, took graduate work at the University of Iowa, Iowa State college and Columbia University. He served as pastor of Garwin, Ia., and vicinity at one time.
Civic Activities
He was a member of Phi Delta Kappa educational fraternity, of the Monroe Methodist church, Masons, Monroe Commercial club and was a past president of the Jasper Community Schoolmasters club. He was a staunch supporter of Jasper county school and athletic programs and the tall gray-haired figure was a familiar sight around any Jasper county school event in recent years.
He is survived by his wife, who is a teacher in the Monroe schools, a daughter, Mrs. Gordon (Elizabeth) Nielson of Ames, and two sisters.
Services will be held at 2:00 o’clock Tuesday afternoon at the Monroe Methodist church with the Rev. George Pennington in charge.
The casket will be opened from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m., but not after the services, it was announced.
Source: Newton Daily News; 04 December 1944 (Monroe Silent City Cemetery; Block 11, row 10)