Lovstad, Eric Thomas (1951-2018)

LOVSTAD, HOFFARTH, MOSIMAN, LEVAD, THOMPSON, SERDAHL

Posted By: Paul Nagy (email)
Date: 6/29/2018 at 19:45:34

Eric Thomas Lovstad
September 16, 1951 - May 12, 2018

Eric Thomas Lovstad, 66, of Forest City, passed away on Saturday, May 12, 2018, at Mercy Medical Center in Mason City.

Eric Thomas Lovstad entered the world on September 16, 1951, in an Algona, Iowa, hospital. Born during the Truman administration, he lived with his parents, Leonard and Viola (Dolly) Lovstad, in a small, pale green house in Burt, Iowa. His earliest memories were of a shadowy picture hanging on the wall in that house and of sleeping in a crib in a small room off his parents’ bedroom at the farm home where he grew up in Plymouth, Iowa. In addition, he could, vividly, recall his first day of kindergarten where he was placed under the tender care of a grandmotherly figure, Mrs. Reynolds. Despite this kindly teacher, however, he decided that school wasn’t for him and insisted on going back home. Amazingly, they let him go, but his mom returned him the next day, and all went well after that.

Eric’s fond memories of growing up in Iowa included an especially nice fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Roberts, reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, hot summers with boyhood friends, little league baseball and riding an old gelding named Guy (the source of his lifetime love of all things related to horses). With his parents, Eric learned to play card games like pinochle, 500, and cribbage, and he remembered roughhousing with his dad, an event that once caused Eric to accidentally break his father’s nose, which his dad never held against him. Growing up on an Iowa farm, he enjoyed the hogs, in particular, caring for the newborns, providing fresh straw and water to the mothers, and keeping a watchful eye to prevent a huge mother sow from plopping down on her babies and smothering them.

Teenagers in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the heyday of rock and roll music, Eric’s two older brothers, Craig and Jim, would listen to the tinny sounds of Buddy Holly and the 45 rpm records of Richie Valens which drifted out of their upstairs bedrooms. As a high school student at North Central in Manly, he remembered those years as some of the happiest of his life. Although he had stints on the basketball and football teams, he, for over twenty straight years, played organized baseball or softball as catcher, shortstop, third baseman, and pitcher.

Eric attended North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) for one exciting year before transferring to Iowa State University (ISU) where he lived with his brother, Craig, and sister-in-law, Sandi. In the summer before enrolling at Iowa State, he traveled to Mexico with two friends on the advice from the Spanish language teacher at NIACC. There, he attended bullfights, visited the pyramid ruins, toured a palace, dined at upscale Mexico City restaurants, and met the friendly Mexican people who impressed him and contributed to his love of travel and sightseeing.

After graduating from Iowa State at age twenty-three and marring Dawn Hoffarth, he moved to Yankton, South Dakota. Looking to further his education, Eric discovered Iowa Western Community College where he became a top student before landing a civil engineering job for HDR Engineering and several other companies over the next twenty years. During this time, Eric and Dawn moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where their two sons, Matt and Warren were born. After relocating to Phoenix, Arizona, Eric worked for HDR, bought antiques and other collectibles, and then resold them in a mall booth and later on Ebay.

He moved back to Manly in 2003, and in September of 2006, he met Mary Levad Mosiman at an auction where he helped deliver the dollar boxes she had rescued from the sale of her car. After moving back to Manly from Arizona to care for his mom, Dolly, he got involved with the library board and joined the Lion’s Club. After meeting Mary, he knew he no longer had to take his mom to any music events because Mary would take her. After marrying on September 2, 2011, in the Newman Chapel in Mason City, Iowa, Eric and Mary lived in rural Forest City, where Eric spent time restoring old farm buildings, chopping wood, tending two chickens, and building any number of cool additions for their little farm wedding venue out of reclaimed wood. Although he no longer sold items on Ebay after moving out to the farm, he, still, enjoyed going to auctions, adding to his collections, and finding rustic items to display around the farm. True to form, in the treasure boxes he made for Matt and Warren, he placed various items he had collected and saved over the years along with an index of all the contents included in the boxes.

Eric loved camping trips with his sons, a great trip to Disneyland, and taking his boys back to the Iowa farm for visits. He, also, loved taking little weekend trips with Mary to interesting small towns in Iowa and Minnesota -- especially to historic hotels and small towns up and down the Mississippi River. Indeed, he loved historic hotels so much that he arranged to take the family to the Historic Park Inn designed by Frank Lloyd Wright the weekend it re-opened for a celebration after he married Mary.

Lastly, Eric loved his role as a grandfather to Robert and took special pleasure in getting him to laugh. He enjoyed quiet time with Robert, singing along with Robert’s favorite songs. After years of small quiet family holidays, celebrating with blended the families including Mary’s big family was a bit of a shock for him at first, but he, especially, came to love them. His favorites were Kite Day at the Farm and the Halloween Party in the barn.

Eric is survived by his wife, Mary Levad Lovstad; his sons and daughters-in-law, Matthew and Jessica Lovstad, of Manly, Warren Lovstad, of Mason City, Nick and Kelly Mosiman, of Mason City, Angela and Donnie Thompson, of Manly; and one dear grandson, Robert Mosiman, of Mason City. Eric is, also, survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Jim and Dorothy Lovstad, of San Antonio, Texas, and his sister-in-law, Sandi Lovstad, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, as well as by many in-laws, nieces, and nephews. Eric was preceded in death by his parents, Leonard and Dolly (Serdahl) Lovstad, and his brother, Craig Lovstad.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m., Friday, May 18, 2018, at the First United Methodist Church, 508 Carter Street, Plymouth. Inurnment will follow in Oakwood Cemetery, Plymouth. Visitation will take place from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., Thursday, May 17, 2018, at Bride Colonial Chapel, 110 E Spring Street, Manly, and will continue for an hour before services at the church. In lieu of customary condolences, memorials may be sent to the American Heart Association, 208 S. LaSalle St., Suite 1500 Chicago, Illinois 60604-1242.

Hogan Bremer Moore Colonial Chapels, Bride Colonial Chapel, Manly, Iowa, 2018.

Winnebago Obituaries maintained by Cheryl Siebrass.
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