William Franklin Nutt 1911 - 2004

MCCALL, NUTT, NIELSEN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen -Volunteer (email)
Date: 1/13/2018 at 23:06:56

Sioux City Journal
4 November 2004

William Franklin Nutt, 93, of Sioux City died Monday, Nov. 1, 2004, at Sunrise Manor.

The body was cremated. Memorial services will be 11 a.m. Friday at First Lutheran Church with the Rev. Alan Wicks officiating. Arrangements are under the direction of Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel.

Mr. Nutt was born March 7, 1911, on a farm near Castana, Iowa, the eldest son of Robert Van Buren Nutt and Betty Alice (McCall) Nutt. He graduated from Castana High School in 1930. He graduated from Iowa State College in 1936 with a bachelor of science degree in agriculture and science and in 1943 with a master of science degree in vocational agriculture and soil science. He taught vocational agriculture in the Iowa communities of Plymouth, Knoxville and Mapleton.

He married Kathryn Marie Nielsen on June 11, 1938, at Moorhead, Iowa.

In March 1944, he entered the U.S. Navy and served as commanding officer of the Armed Guard aboard four different merchant marine ships during World War II. One of his ships was sunk by a German torpedo in the North Irish Sea. Another ship was severely damaged when it was rammed by a friendly ship in a convoy shortly after leaving France loaded with 1,200 German prisoners. Soon after, Germany surrendered and Mr. Nutt was transferred to the Pacific where he served out the balance of the war.

His medals included the Purple Heart and campaign medals for the American, European and Asiatic Theaters. He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of lieutenant commander. Forty years after the war, Mr. Nutt received a commemorative medal from the Soviet Union titled "The 40th Anniversary of the Great Patriotic War" for his part in carrying food and medicine to Russia.

Upon discharge from the Navy, he served as a soil conservation officer assigned to the Flood Control Division, Department of Agriculture. In 1948, he became a loan officer with the Mortgage Loan and Investment Department of Prudential Insurance Co. making farm, industrial and residential loans in western Iowa. In 1953, he became president and CEO of Home Savings and Loan of Sioux City, a position he held for 27 years.

He was a member of First Lutheran Church, Tyrian Lodge No. 508, Sioux City Scottish Rite bodies, Abu Bekr Shrine Temple and the American Legion. He was a member of the Sioux City Country Club and an active member of the Men's Golf Association. He was an avid golfer and shot his age from the time he was 75 until he was 87.

During his career, he was an active business and community leader. He served as president of the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce, the Industrial Development Council, the Tax Research Council, Sunrise Manor and as the first president of River-Cade where he later served as port admiral. He served on the boards of Morningside College, Blue Cross-Blue Shield, First National Bank, the Iowa Savings and Loan League and U.S. Savings and Loan League. He was a founding director of Sunrise Manor.

Survivors include his wife, Kathryn; two sons, Ronald and his wife, Dee, of Sioux City and Richard of Elk Point, S.D.; six grandchildren, Laurie Muder and her husband, Chris, of Lawrence, Kan., Liane Sennott and her husband, Tim, of Naperville, Ill., Sarah Nutt of Bemidji, Minn., Molly Schumacher and her husband, Paul, of Monticello, Minn., William "Beau" Nutt and his wife, Amanda, of Austin, Texas, and Ronald W. Nutt II and his wife, Melissa, of Sioux City; 13 great-grandchildren; a brother and his wife, Earnest and Ethel Nutt of Castana; and a sister and her husband, Eileen and Don Reed of Castana.

He was preceded in death by his parents; a sister, Louise; and a brother, Robert.