Fred Herbert Morford Jr. (2019)

DAY, HIBBARD, HUSTED, LINVILLE, MORFORD, MORRIS, WRIGHT

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler
Date: 11/8/2023 at 18:04:40

Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Page 5A

Fred Herbert Morford Jr., 98, of Stuart passed away peacefully on Friday, July 19, 2019, surrounded by the love and presence of his family.

A celebration of Fred’s life is being planned and will be scheduled at a later date.

Born Sept. 2, 1920, to Fred Herbert Morford and Lillian (Wright) Morford, Fred spent most of his life farming in rural Madison County close to and on the family farm, which later was designated an Iowa Century Farm in 1992. He attended a country grade school, Dexter High School, and was a proud 1942 graduate and alum of Iowa State College with a B.S. degree in animal husbandry. In high school Fred was active in 4-H, and there met his future wife, Verna Husted of Truro, while showing cattle at the Madison County Fair. (Both Fred and Verna’s fathers were cattlemen.) They married on Aug. 15, 1943, and lived on farms south of Dexter in Penn Township of Madison County where they raised three children. In 2013, Fred and Verna moved to The Willows in the Stuart Community Care Center in Stuart, Iowa. Verna predeceased Fred on Aug. 8, 2015. They were married nearly 72 years.

Fred is remembered as being a farmer foremost. He cherished the land and was proud to conserve the soil while providing food for the world. He was among the first in Madison County to use conservation tillage. He served 18 years as Commissioner of the Madison County Soil and Water Conservation District in in 1979 was named Outstanding District Commissioner. In 2010, at age 90 and after farming for 67 years, he was awarded the Lifetime Stewardship Award. Fred also served the community as a member of the Earlham School Board, as a Penn Township Trustee, and as treasurer of the Penn Center Methodist Church, of which he was a member his entire life.

He was preceded in death by his wife; parents; and two sisters, Florence (Morford) Day and Lenore (Morford) Linville.

He is survived by his three children, Jane (David) Hibbard of Menlo Park, Calif., Carol Ann (Dave) Morris of Story City, and David (Kristy) Morford of rural Earlham; seven grandchildren; six great grandchildren; and two step great-grandchildren.

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Madison Obituaries maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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