Coffin, Bertram L. 1923-1999

COFFIN, HARPELL, BROWN

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, volunteer (email)
Date: 6/20/2008 at 19:48:28

BERTRAM L. COFFIN

LE MARS, Iowa—Bertram Losea “Bert” Coffin, 75, of LeMars died Thursday, April 1, 1999, at Floyd Valley Hospital in LeMars.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday at First United Methodist Church in LeMars, with the Rev. Lynn Potter officiating. Visitation with the family present will be at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, with a prayer service at 7:30 p.m., at the church. The body has been donated to the University of South Dakota Medical School. Arrangements are under the direction of Mauer-Johnson Funeral Home in LeMars.

Mr. Coffin was born July 25, 1923, in Whitestone Queens, N.Y., the son of Bertam Losea and Ethel May (Harpell) Coffin. He graduated from Jamacia High School, then served in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

He married Gladys M. Brown on June 13, 1945, in Inwood, Iowa. The couple moved to LeMars in 1958, where he was a partner in Clear Vue TV for 35 years.

He was a member of the United Methodist Church. He was the first person named Citizen of the Year by the LeMars Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of Lions Club and received the Melvin Jones Fellow Award.

Mr. Coffin was a longtime scoutmaster and received the Silver Beaver Award. He also volunteered with Lifeline, Meals on Wheels, and American Diabeties Association. He enjoyed golfing.

Survivors include his wife; a son and his wife, Paul and Kathy of Sioux City; three daughters and their husbands, Barbara and Barry Jessen of Salt Lake City, Utah, Phyllis and Bill Baynes of Colorado Springs, Colo., and Jane and Merlyn Pew of Yankton, S.D.; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and two sisters, Grace Schuster of Merritt Island, Fla., and Margaret Walker of Fort Worth, Texas.

He was preceded in death by his parents.

~Source: The Sioux City Journal – part of the D. Easton Obituary Collection