Dennis Dean Ronfelt

RONFELT FISHER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/11/2010 at 17:09:50

Sioux City Journal
12 July 2000

Smithland, Iowa—Dennis Dean Ronfelt, 53, former mayor of Smithland, died Saturday, July 8, 2000, at Burgess Memorial Hospital in Onawa, Iowa.

Services will be 2 p.m. today at Westwood Community School auditorium in Sloan, Iowa, with the Rev. Karen Handke officiating. Burial will be in the Little Sioux Township Cemetery, Smithland. Arrangements are under the direction of Armstrong Funeral Home in Mapleton.

Mr. Ronfelt was born March 9, 1947, in Sioux City, the son of Earl and Hazel (Fisher) Ronfelt . He graduated from Westwood High School in 1966. He was employed with Westendorf Manufacturing Co. and later started his own carpenter business. He also owned and operated a tackle and bait shop for several years.

He was elected the youngest mayor in Smithland and served many terms as mayor and councilman. He also served as a city police officer and as chief of the volunteer fire department. He served as a co-founder of the Smithland Rescue, a CPR instructor and was a Woodbury County deputy.

He was recently employed with Westwood Community Schools as a custodian.

He was a member of Smithland United Methodist Church, where he served as superintendent of the church school, a board member and church chairman, Sunday school and Bible school teacher. He was a member of Betterment Club, Jaycees and American Heart Association. He worked with Woodbury County Community Action Agency from 1968 to 1976, and at the Community Center and the museum. He enjoyed family, genealogy and assisted in remapping burial plots for several cemeteries.

Survivors include his mother; three brothers and their wives, Ronald and Janet of Smithland, James and Lila of Newton, Iowa and Stephen and Clarissa of Smithland; and numerous nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles.

He was preceded in death by his father; two brothers, Eugene and David; two nieces, maternal and paternal grandparents, aunts and uncles.