Jerry A. Fiser 1941-1977

FISER, BENNET, CHRISTOPHERSON, BACON, EHLER, SCHWAB, HAMILTON, CHEKAL

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 8/17/2008 at 15:51:02

Obit. Files; Poweshiek Co. Genealogical Society

TRUCK WAS CARRYING DYNAMITE--
FISER KILLED IN MISSOURI; PICKUP HITS CREEKBED

Jerry A. Fiser, 35, of Brooklyn was killed last Thursday when dynamite in his pickup truck exploded, reportedly when he tried to cross a small creek-bed some five miles east of Milan, Mo.

Funeral services for Jerry Fiser were held at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, July 5, at the Nevenhoven Funeral Home in Brooklyn. The explosion occurred after the theft of some 350 lbs. of dynamite, 288 blasting caps, and a detonator, all valued at $1,300, from Malcom Stone Co. last Wednesday.

Deputy Sheriff Larry Wray told the Herald-Register that Fiser was a suspect in the theft of the explosives, since he failed to show up for work Wednesday.

Wray said that someone broke into the shop of the stone company, took a cutting torch, and used the torch to gain entry into the dynamite shack. The same torch was apparently used on the cap house, some distance from the dynamite shack.

The explosion itself occurred at 2:40 p.m. on Thursday. The blast, Wray said, had formed a crater six feet deep and 20 feet across in the ground, and debris was scattered around the site. Wray said that the truck had been blown into scraps from six to eight inches in size.

A plate holding the serial number of the detonator linked the dynamite theft to the Thursday explosion initially. E.W. Simpson, Sullivan County, Mo., coroner, said that identification of Fiser was traced through the license plate of the pickup and other traces of evidence.

The Rev. Fred Pierce, pastor of the Grace United Methodist Church, officiated at the services Tuesday. Flower attendants were Mrs. Larry Gwin and Mrs. Charles Griffith. Casket bearers were Max Ryan, John Curran, Kenneth Alexander, Harold Beaderstadt, Larry Gwin, and Joe Foreman. Military rites were conducted by Frances Gallagher, and American Legion Post No. 294. Burial was in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery.

The son of Merle and Ruth Bennet Fiser, he was born on Sept. 10, 1941, in Grinnell. He was married to Evelyn Christopherson Bacon on July 2, 1970 in Omaha. He was employed by the Malcom Stone Co. for three years.

He is survived by his wife; one daughter, Shannon Jo; his mother, Mrs. Ruth Ehler of Belle Plaine; three sisters, Janet Schwab of Elxis, Ill., Joanne Hamilton of Cedar Rapids, and Joyce Chekal of Belle Plaine; and three step-children, Doug, Chris and Jeff Bacon. He was preceded in death by his father.