Garvin, Robert Emmett 1918-2006

GARVIN, HARMON

Posted By: Doris Hoffman, Volunteer (email)
Date: 8/1/2017 at 19:52:56

AKRON, Iowa -- Dr. Robert E. Garvin, 88, of Akron passed away Friday, Sept. 29, 2006, at Akron Care Center following a brief illness.

Memorial services will be 2 p.m. Sunday at Wesley United Methodist Church in Akron, with the Rev. Laurice Streyffeler officiating. Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery. Arrangements are under the direction of Carlsen Funeral Home-Schroeder Chapel in Akron.

Robert Emmett Garvin was born Aug. 4, 1918, one of eight children of Phillip and Delia Garvin, in Dixon, Neb. He graduated from Hartington (Neb.) High School in 1937, then from Wayne State College, Wayne, Neb., in 1941 with a major in science and math. He taught mathematics and coached athletics in Jefferson and Alcester, S.D., where he led the boy's basketball team to a state championship. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served his country during World War II. He was an instructor of chemical warfare.

He and the future Melba Marie Harmon met during their teaching days in Alcester. In 1945, they were married in Sioux Falls, S.D. They moved to Ames, Iowa, where he attended Iowa State University to obtain his doctor of veterinary medicine degree. He also did some graduate work at the University of Southern California in bacteriology. After his graduation from ISU in 1949, the couple moved to Sioux City, where he worked at Allied Laboratory for three years. In 1952, they moved to Akron, where he maintained a large animal veterinary practice until his retirement in the early 1990s. Melba Garvin died in 1996.

He served on the Akron school board for 12 years during the 1950s and 1960s, most of which he served as school board president.

He is survived by three children, Michelle (Steve) Sparks of Verona, Wis., Dr. Kevin (Janette) Garvin of Omaha and Suzanne Garvin of Naperville, Ill.; his grandchildren, Amber (Chris), Shane (Suzanna) and Kira Sparks and Robert, Elisabeth and Charlotte Garvin; seven brothers and sisters, Vincent, John, Harold and Dick Garvin, Alice (Jim) Parker, Eleanor (Jack) Swift and Lucille (Frank) Foster; a brother and sister-in-law, Lois and Will Mielke of Hartford, S.D.; and many nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Melba; and his siblings.

Sioux City Journal
Friday, October 6, 2006
Sioux City, Iowa