Willard Frederick YEOMAN

YEOMAN, BOSS, RICHARDSON, SCHONS, HUEGERICH, SMITH, SCHNEIDER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 12/22/2008 at 11:38:39

The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA
February 25, 1999

Willard Yeoman, 84, died Tuesday night, Feb. 23, 1999, in the Anamosa Community Hospital after an extended illness. Services: 11 a.m. Friday, First Presbyterian Church. Burial: Oakwood Cemetery. Friends may call from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. today at Goettsch Funeral Home, Monticello. Survivors include a brother, Orvin of Monticello; a sister, Roxann Boss of Grundy Center; and a special friend, Dora Richardson of Lake City. He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Iva, on Nov. 6, 1974; two half brothers, Maynard and George Yeoman; and two half sisters, Loretta Huegerich and Elnora Schons.

Willard Frederick Yeoman was born Feb. 18, 1915, in Hardy, Iowa, the son of William and Edna Smith Yeoman. He received his early education in the Fort Dodge area schools. Willard graduated from Monticello Community Schools in 1933 and later from Lenox College, Hopkinton, and the Cedar Rapids Business College. Willard married Iva Grace Schneider on May 23, 1937, at First Presbyterian Church, Monticello. Willard worked at the Monticello Green House and Franklin Equipment Co. before his father started Yeoman and Co. in 1929. He worked with his father in the hand production of their first tools, a rake and a shovel (a design that is still produced today by the company), and as secretary and treasurer of the company. The products were produced in the basement of the family home and sold directly to the hardware stores by Willard and his father. Yeoman and Co. was allowed to continue the production of steel garden tools during World War II because of the Victory Garden program, and their steel snow pushers were used by the Navy to clear the decks of aircraft carriers. Following the death of his father, Willard became president of the company in 1969, a position held until 1985. He retired from active day-to-day participation in the company in 1974. Willard was a lifelong member of First Presbyterian Church, where he was an elder and trustee and active in the choir. A Willard Yeoman Memorial Fund has been established.