Eldon Alfred "E.A." Christensen 1918-1997

SMITH, CHRISTENSEN, OLSON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen-Volunteer (email)
Date: 1/27/2013 at 17:25:55

CORRECTIONVILLE, Iowa - Eldon Alfred "E.A." Christensen, 79, of Sioux City, former mayor of Correctionville, died Saturday, Nov. 1, 1997, at Indian Hills Care Center.

Services will be at 1 p.m. today at Grace United Methodist Church in Correctionville, with the Rev. Consorcia A. Sanchez and the Rev. Susan Miller officiating. Burial will be at 4 p.m. today in Graceland Park Cemetery, with military rites conducted by the F. Roger Baumann Post 624. Barker Funeral Home of Correctionville is in charge of the arrangements.

Mr. Christensen was born Sept. 22, 1918, in Botha, Iowa, the son of the Rev. Alfred and Arvilla (Smith) Christensen. He had lived in Climbing Hill, Muscatine, Marshalltown, Dubuque, Centerville and Floyd, Iowa, and Wray, Colo. He graduated from Floyd (Iowa) High School in 1935. He attended Upper Iowa University on a baseball scholarship. He graduated from the University of Dubuque in 1939.

He was employed with Interstate Power Company in Dubuque for one year. In 1940, he accepted a coaching posistion with the Climbing Hill public schools.

He served in the U.S. Navy Air Corps during World War II as a pilot, stationed in Kansas City, San Francisco and the Hawaiian Islands.

He also attended school in Iowa City, Iowa. He returned to Climbing Hill.

He received his master's degree from the University of South Dakota in 1950, and studied for his doctorate at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo.

He married Doris G. Olson in 1948 in Sioux City. In 1948 he became the school superintendent at Luton, Iowa, and in 1952 he became the superintendent of the Peterson Consolidated School District in Peterson, Iowa.

The couple moved to Schleswig, Iowa, in 1956, and then to Correctionville in 1970, where he was the superintendent of the Eastwood School District.

In 1986 he received an award from the Iowa State Athletic Association for his outstanding
contribution to athletics in Iowa. He was president of the Clay County Schoolmasters Association in Peterson, president of the Crawford County Schoolmasters Association, president of the Boyer Valley Athletic Conference and headed the building program, all at Schleswig.

He was elected mayor of Correctionville in 1993. He was a member of the Aethenian Fraternity at the University of Dubuque, the Masonic Lodge in Denison, Iowa, and the F. Roger Baumann Post 624 in Cushing, Iowa. He was a member of the Iowa State Education Association and the Natioval Education Association. His name first appeared in the Who's Who in American Education in 1950.

He attended the Methodist Church and was a Sunday School teacher. He enjoyed golfing, gardening and bird watching.

Survivors include his wife; two daughters and their husbands, Camille and Dr. Kevin Lindahl of Sioux City and Pamela and Brian Briese of Correctionville; a sister, Alpha Hoover of Tuscon, Ariz.; a brother, W. Dale Christensen of Minneapolis, Minn.; and four grandchildren, Adam and Nicole Lindahl and David and Samuel Briese.

He was preceded in death by his parents; an infant grandson, Nathan Briese; and two sisters-in-law, Marian Britton and Marilyn Christensen.

Pallbearers will be Les Zahnley, Terry Shever, Kirk Utesch, Randall Beck, Gaylen Knaack and Tom Mammen.

Memorials may be directed to the Siouxland Juvenile Diabetic Foundation.