James Robert "Jim" Ellwanger 1944-2012

ELLWANGER O’ROURKE FABER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen-Volunteer (email)
Date: 11/4/2012 at 13:16:05

Sioux City Journal
October 31, 2012

SIOUX CITY | James Robert "Jim" Ellwanger formerly of Sioux City passed peacefully into his new life with God on Oct. 24, 2012, in San Antonio, Texas, after a valiant 11-month battle with brain cancer.

A celebration of Jim’s life will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Corpus Christi Church in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Private interment will be in Oakland Cemetery, Sac City, Iowa, where he will rest near his parents and his O’Rourke grandparents. Visitation will be 9:30 a.m. until service time Saturday at the church. Arrangements are under the direction of Laufersweiler-Sievers Funeral Home in Fort Dodge.

Jim was born in Carroll, Iowa, on Oct. 28, 1944, to James Arthur "Art" Ellwanger and Mary Frances (O’Rourke) Ellwanger. He graduated from Newell-Providence High School in 1962, Buena Vista College in 1966 and received a masters degree from the University of Iowa in 1978.

Jim married Gloria Faber on Dec. 26, 1969, at St. John Catholic Church in Bancroft, Iowa. Their marriage was blessed with two children, Eric and Marla. Jim was called to serve in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1971. He coached at Spalding Catholic High School in Granville, Iowa, and St. Edmond High School in Fort Dodge. In 1978, Jim began his college baseball coaching career at Briar Cliff College in Sioux City, where he initiated its baseball program.

Among the numerous honors received during his teaching and coaching career were being named Iowa High School Baseball Coach of the Year in 1977, Iowa College Baseball Coach of the Year in 1980 and being inducted in 1983 into the Iowa High School Baseball Coach’s Association Hall of Fame. From 1986 to 1992 Jim established a second college baseball program, this time at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. From 1992 to 2011, Jim taught at the East Central and North East ISD Alternative Schools in San Antonio.

Jim will be greatly missed by his wife and soul mate of 42 years, Gloria; son, Eric Ellwanger (Tara) of Allen, Texas; daughter, Marla Edwards (Chad) of North Little Rock, Ark.; grandchildren, Allie and Megan Ellwanger, and Rene, Austin and Ella Edwards; and a brother, Kendrick Ellwanger (Mary) of Larkspur, Colo.

His parents, Art and Mary Ellwanger; his Ellwanger and O’Rourke grandparents; and a niece, Nancy Loew, preceded him in death.

Memorial gifts may be made in Jim’s name to The Chromosome 18 Registry, 7155 Oakridge Drive, San Antonio, TX, www.chromosome18.org or to the Sisters of St. Francis, 3390 Windsor Ave, Dubuque, IA, www.osfdbq.org.