Norman Albert Mecklenburg 1914 - 2000

MECKLENBURG, STIEFEL, ROUNDS

Posted By: Connie Swearingen-Volunteer (email)
Date: 8/11/2014 at 22:15:32

30 July 2000

Former FFA instructor at Maple Valley dies

Norman A. Mecklenburg, age 85, of Mapleton died Thursday, July 6, 2000, at Moscow, Idaho.

Services were held 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, July 12, at St. John's United Methodist Church in Mapleton with Pastor Shirley Textor and Pastor Kathy Mecklenburg Kramer officiating. Burial was in Mt. Hope Cemetery, Mapleton. Marie Whiteing was the organist and soloist.

Arrangements were made under the direction of the Armstrong Funeral Home of Mapleton.

Norman Albert Mecklenburg was born July 10, 1914 to Rudolph Carl and Ruby Elizabeth (Stiefel) Mecklenburg at Burlington, Iowa. He was raised with his brother, Robert and sister, Dorothy, on the family dairy farm near Denmark, Iowa. Mr. Mecklenburg attended and graduated from Denmark High School and enjoyed playing basketball and participating in the orchestra as a cellist while a student there.

He enrolled at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, and studied forestry and agriculture working his way through school as a hand on the area farms and as a projectionist for the Ames Theatre Company. Between quarters he served on the Barberry Eradication Crew throughout Iowa. On one of these excursions, his headquarters was the Monona County Courthouse in Onawa, Iowa, where he met a young clerk by the name of Mae Ferne Rounds. They were married on June 6, 1938.

Together they traveled throughout the Midwest and southern states showing movies in some 588 communities for the Universal Production Company until the summer of 1941 at which time Norm re-enrolled at Iowa State University and re-established his work with the Ames theaters.

Mr. Mecklenburg served his country during World War II with the 11th Armored Thunderbolt Division, remaining in Europe with the Occupational Forces, then returned to I.S.U., where he resumed his studies.

He graduated from that school in 1949 with a Bachelor of Science degree.

Norm and Mae Ferne moved to Mapleton, Iowa, that summer to begin his career of teaching Vocational Agriculture and Industrial Arts serving as F.F.A. advisor at the Mapleton Community School.

The couple enjoyed playing pinochle and dining out with friends, camped as members of the Maple Valley Camping Club, and were well known and eager participants of the Maple Valley Square Dance Club, the Danbury Dancers, and various Round Dance Clubs of western Iowa. Mae Ferne passed away September 14, 1997.

Norm was a member of St. John's United Methodist Church in Mapleton as well as a member of the American Legion Loren Hollister Post #496, also of Mapleton.

Survivors left to cherish Norm's memory include his daughter, Kathy Lee Kramer and her husband, Robert of Patouse, Washington; his two grandsons, Matt Williams and his wife, Holli and their daughters, Erynn and Danae of Kennewick, Washington; John Williams of Mattapolsett, Massachusetts; one sister, Dorothy Morton of Fort Madison, Iowa and five nephews and two nieces, along with many former students, educators, neighbors and friends.

Along with his beloved wife, Mae Ferne, Norm was preceded in death by his parents, Rudolph and Ruby; two sons, and his brother, Robert.

Memorials may be made to St. John's United Methodist Church in Mapleton or with the Future Farmers of America.

Honorary pallbearers were Rev. Gene Hancock, C.R. Brown, Bill Christiansen, Ronald LeFebvre, Lawrence Nelson, Leonard Maier, Cleo Tippery, Loren Blakely, Clifford LeFebvre, Lawrence Bueoy
and Norman's Future Farmers of America students.

Pallbearers were Ed Maier, Leo Dean, Bill Hagerdon, Brian Swee, Nick Swee and Jim
Gaukel.