Gaylord McKee Coffin

COFFIN, MCKEE

Posted By: June Brewer Welsch (email)
Date: 4/26/2009 at 09:12:04

Source Muscatine Iowa Journal May 21, 2000
CONESVILLE, Iowa -- Gaylord McKee Coffin, 95, formerly of Conesville, died May 19, 2000, at the Four Seasons Care Center in Fort Collins, Colo.

Memorial services are at the Grace United Church of Christ in Conesville. Services are under the direction of the Stacy-Lewis Funeral Home in Columbus Junction. Burial of the cremains will be at the Conesville Cemetery in Conesville. A memorial has been established for the American Diabetes Association.

He was born Dec. 13, 1904, in Conesville, the son of Frederick and Nettie McKee Coffin. He married Lona Scott Coffin in 1936 in Detroit, Mich. She preceded him in death in 1943. He later married Helen Rose Coffin in 1955, in Detroit. She preceded him in death in 1962.

He attended Iowa State Teachers College and UCLA in Los Angeles, Calif. in 1927. He was a member of Phi Delta Theta. He moved to Detroit, Mich. in 1928 and became Public Relations Manager for General Motors Corporations where he worked on special projects such as auto shows. In 1955 he became Regional Public Relations Manager in Cleveland, Ohio. He also served as Secretary of General Motor's nine Plant City Committees in the area, supervising radio, TV, and press relations,

He moved to Denver, Colo., in 1960, where he traveled for the A.A., Martin Company. In 1965 he became Vice-President of Villa National Bank in Lakewood, Colo. and before retirement became the Bank Relations Officer for the Small Business Administration, U. S. Government. Then in 1976 he worked as an SBA Marketing Consultant for Merrill Lynch.

Survivors include his daughter, Gayle Ficara, of Danbury, Conn.; a son, Robert S. Coffin of Fort Collins; four step-children, Jack, Donna, Ruth, and Donald Meyer; four grandchildren, Christine, Mary, Lona, and Paul; three great-grandchildren; and a sister, Deborah Gallagher and her husband, Randall, of Greeley, Colo.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wives, Lona Scott Coffin and Helen Rose Coffin; a grandchild, Gregory Scott Coffin; three brothers, John F. Coffin, Clarence 'Tip' Coffin, and Burton Coffin; and two sisters, Nellie Reger and Gertrude Fisher