Engberg, Dr. Royce Raymond

ENGBERG, KEHM CLEVELAND

Posted By: Janet Schuldt Schuldt (email)
Date: 2/7/2019 at 09:32:38

The Odebolt Chronicle Odebolt, Sac, Iowa Thursday, April 9, 1925 Page 1

DR. ROYCE, RAYMOND ENGBERG

“Death is a Hard Master," and "Death Loves a Shining Mark."

These phrases are surely most applicable at this time in reporting the passing of one of our noblest and best young men, Dr. Royce Raymond Engberg who died in Chicago, after but a short but serious illness, double pneumonia, early Thursday morning, April 2.

His future full of promise, and we dare not ask why he was taken from us in his prime, unless, as flowers are picked before the frost finds them, that we may hot. witness their decay; It is sad indeed, to see one so well equipped for a life taken so early from the sphere of usefulness, from his young and loving wife and young babe, from his fond mother, brothers, and sisters, who had every reason to expect so much from his expected career. Yet it seems it is ever so. Death will take from us our brightest and best, a truth we cannot understand now, but it will be known to us when we meet them on the other shore.

Meanwhile, the dark shadows will bear heavily upon us. And in this instance, the shock would be almost unbearable, especially to the young wife, who is left alone, but for the little babe, a living memory of the dear departed. May time bring its resignation, and may He who bears our burdens, He who has taken the dearest on earth from us, also send the balm that heals all sorrows and wounded hearts

Royce Raymond Engberg was born August 31, 1897, at Odebolt, spending his young life in our midst and receiving his education here also, graduating with honors from Odebolt High School with the Class of 1915. In the fall of the same year, he entered Morningside College, graduating from that college in 1919 and receiving his B. A. degree. He successfully taught school at Burke, So. Dakota during the next school year, and in the fall of 1920 entered the Northwestern University Medical- School at Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from the University in June 1924.

August 22, 1922, at St. Paul, Minnesota, he was married to Miss Lila Kehm of Plankinton, South Dakota. One girl, Mildred Elaine, was born to this union. Since January 1 of this year, Dr. Engberg was serving as interne, in the large Cook County Hospital located at Chicago.

He was president of the Chicago Student Volunteer Union, this organization comprising all the volunteer students in colleges and universities of Chicago and vicinity.

Upon completion of his internship, Dr. Engberg intended to go to Java as a medical missionary. This fact alone impresses one of his worth, and of the seemingly inestimable loss to mankind, a fact recognized in the medical world of Chicago, as the loss of Dr. Engberg would not be lamented in the Chicago papers, had his studies, his ambition, his life's mission been of just ordinary kind. To more fully understand what we mean and refer to is better explained in a few excerpts taken from the Chicago Herald Examiner of April 3, commenting on his ambition and the loss sustained by his passing, which read as follows:

“Out at the County Hospital, suffering and death are familiar things. They are the routine of daily existence. But, yes today they came poignantly to that great building and saddened it.

"Dr. Royce Engberg died. His name may not seem familiar to newspaper readers because he was only 27 and just starting on the road that, his colleagues said, would inevitably have led to fame. He was an intern on the staff of the hospital, which means that he had graduated from medical school. with honors which had won him a place in the training school of great medical men, and he was called one of the most promising.

"Since January 1, he has been in Ward 61, one of the busiest in the hospital. He was a junior, which. entailed duties which made him subject to call day and night. Naturally, somewhat frail, he. began to break under the strain. Older doctors urged him to rest but, he was eager to finish his internship, because at 2121 S. Lawndale Ave. there were a girl wife and a baby, daughter waiting for his coming

Ten days ago, he collapsed. There had been an unusually large number of patients in Ward 61 and for several nights he had had little rest. And finally, after finishing his rounds. one afternoon he went to his room where they found him a victim of double pneumonia

There was scarcely an eminent physician on the staff who did not ask, to attend him. There was not an intern who failed to offer, his help.

But Dr. Frederick Tice, one of the best-known physicians in the. a country insisted that he be allowed to handle the case Since then, day and night, he has been at the bedside. Almost without sleep, he has applied his medical skill and for a time they thought he would save his patient. But early yesterday morning, Dr. Engberg died—a martyr to his zeal.

Dr. Engberg is survived by his sorrowing wife, Lila Kehm Engberg, and daughter, Mildred Elaine, residing at 2121 S. Lawnsdale Ave., Chicago, Illinois; his mother, Mrs. Emma Engberg of Sheldon, Iowa; five brothers—Arwin Mellberg of Denver; Colorado, William Mellberg of Vermillion, South Dakota, Russell Engberg of Washington, D. C, C. Evan Engberg of Osceola, Iowa and Curtiss Engberg of Sheldon; two sisters—Laura Engberg Cleveland of Sioux City, and Chrystal of Sheldon.

Funeral services were held at St. Paul's Methodist Church, Chicago, at 2:30 Friday afternoon. The body of Dr. Engberg was then taken to Odebolt, accompanied, by his wife and daughter, his mother, who had been called to Chicago during his illness, and Howard Down, arriving in Odebolt Saturday morning, where funeral services were held in the Methodist church Sunday afternoon at 2:30, conducted by Dr. P. M. Arrasmith of Sheldon, the deceased's former pastor, and assisted by Rev. John A. Kettle. The church was filled with friends and neighbors of the family, who gathered to tender last respects here on earth to one who grew up among us, one whom they had learned to love and value, which was also plainly evident by the most abundant profusion of flowers, covering all available space on the rostrum, on and near the shroud of the deceased loved one.

Mr. Ronald Wilson of Sac City, a former fellow student of Dr. Engberg at Morningside College rendered two beautiful and appropriate solos,'" accompanied at the piano by Mrs. S. Andrew Stouffer of Sac City

Pallbearers were—Lawrence, Howard, and Vernon Down, Leslie Hanson, Lloyd Babcock, and Verne. Paul.

Relatives: and friends attending the funeral here, besides the wife and daughter of the deceased, were Mrs. Emma Engberg, Chrystal Engberg, Curtiss Engberg, and Dr. and Mrs. M. P. Arrasmith and daughter of Sheldon; Mrs. C. E. Engberg. Grandmother of the deceased, Lillian Engberg, an aunt, both of Kiron; Mr. and Mrs. William Mellberg and daughter of Vermillion, South Dakota; Charles Bloom, brother-in-law of the deceased, and family of Leeds, Iowa; Mrs. Laura Engberg Cleveland of Sioux City. Mr. and; Mrs. Evan Engberg of Osceola; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Rohlf of Mitchell, South. Dakota, the latter a sister of Mrs. Royce Engberg; Howard Down of Chicago; Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Wolle of Sioux City, Mr. and Mrs. S. Andrew Stouffer and Ronald Wilson of Sac City; Prof. C.B. Core and Mr. and Mrs. Guy Babcock of Galva. Relatives of Odebolt attending were Mr. and Mrs. Frank W. Stolt, uncle and aunt, and George Stolt, cousin of the deceased.

There were also many friends from Kiron, Sac City and other neighboring towns in attendance

The whole community is saddened by the death of Dr. Engberg and sympathizes with the families in the loss of this loved one.