Dean FOLKER remembered

FOLKER

Posted By: Joey Stark
Date: 5/23/2009 at 18:55:51

"The Fairfield Ledger", Wednesday, May 20, 2009, Page 2
Lifestyles Section

Mary-Go-Round
-by Mary Ovrom

FOLKER remembered

What a loss to the community and our whole area with the sudden passing of Dean FOLKER.

FOLKER was born in Farmington, graduated from Keosauqua High School and was a very successful architect in California. He specialized in hospitals and had a national reputation for excellence.

After he retired from his firm in California, he decided to return to his roots in Van Buren County, and lucky for us he did.

He designed and built a beautiful home here and was soon put to work planning additions to our hospital and designing rural health clinics. Retirement was not for him.

I had occasion to visit the clinic in Birmingham and was very impressed with it, and I meant to tell him this, but didn't get it done.

In addition to his architectural work, he was active in the community, never missing a Rotary meeting or services at the congregational church.

When our minister, Hal Schnedler, was being treated for Leukemia in Rochester, he would write his sermons and send them here with FOLKER often filling in as pastor.

In addition to all this, he was one of the best crossword puzzle solvers I ever knew, especially the New York Times crossword, which gets harder and harder as the week progresses, but he always came up with the answers.

Every Sunday after church, FOLKER would invite several widow friends to join him for dinner, which they all enjoyed.

Among other interesting facts about him includes the following: he served in the army during World War II and was once behind enemy lines in France. He was rescued by a nice French couple. He kept in touch with this family and went back to visit them several times, keeping fluent in French.

At the time of his death, he was looking forward to going to California to spend his birthday with his son Bob and wife Marilyn and looking forward to having a great-grandchild later this year.

We'll certainly miss him.

*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I have no relation to the person(s) mentioned.

Dean Folker's obituary - click here
 

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