SHIVVERS, Charles C. (1918-2011)

SHIVVERS

Posted By: Don Boucher (email)
Date: 5/5/2013 at 06:09:44

Obituary from The Des Moines Register newspaper, Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa, USA on 5-10-2011:

Charles Carl Shivvers passed away peacefully Friday, May 6, 2011, with his family at his bedside, at the Care Initiatives Nursing Home in Corydon, Iowa. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, May 11 at 1:30 p.m. at the Randolph Funeral Home in Corydon. Visitation will be held Tuesday, May 10, 5 to 7 p.m. at the funeral home. Interment will be in the Corydon cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to the Charles C. Shivvers Memorial Bandstand Bench.

Charles was born February 5, 1918, in Knoxville, Iowa to Charles and Lydia (Langebartels) Shivvers. He was a graduate of Knoxville High School and then attended Iowa State University prior to commencing his first career as a farmer a few miles from Pleasantville, Iowa. In March of 1944 he was united in marriage with Anita Snider. Four children were born of this union. After contracting Alzheimer's in his later years, Charles was lovingly cared for at home by his wife Anita for several years.

He was an "entrepreneur's entrepreneur", serially trying his hand at multiple endeavors while maintaining his lifelong love of farming; these endeavors ranged from raising mink, bobwhite quail, ring neck pheasants, and turkeys to running a restaurant in Des Moines, to having a "pick your own" strawberry patch in Ankeny, to inventing the well known Shivvers Circulator and starting Shivvers Manufacturing of Corydon, Iowa. A long time coffee aficionado, true to form as an entrepreneur he also developed and promoted Shivvers Coffee, a gourmet coffee years before the coffee culture took hold in the USA. His lasting entrepreneurial achievement was Shivvers Manufacturing, a well known manufacturer of grain dryers and of zero turning radius lawnmowers based in Corydon, Iowa. One of Charles' favorite sayings was "only a damn fool never changes his mind".

Survivors include his wife, Anita of Corydon; daughter, Donna (Don) Otto of Knoxville; sons, Carl (Laura) of Chariton, Steve of Prole and Doug (Joy) of Corydon; grandchildren, C.C. Shivvers of Chariton, Ann (Brian) Van Den Top, of Chariton, Tracy (Marques) DeGrandis of Dunlap, Illinois, Stacy (Jason) Heisler of North Liberty, Isaac Shivvers of Boston, MA, Elizabeth Shivvers of Hong Kong, and Ryan Shivvers of Corydon; great-grandchildren include Nina and Ella DeGrandis of Dunlap Illinois, and Shelby Heisler of North Liberty, Charles Shivvers of Ames, Dustin Shivvers of Chariton, and Justin and Andrew Van Den Top of Chariton.

Charles was preceded in death by his mother and father and brothers, Owen, Mark, and Gerald and his sister, Elnora Dimm.