Orvin Dale YEOMAN

YEOMAN, SMITH, STEWART, HUEGERICH, SCHONS, DEVITO, JEPSON, PETERSON, NUZZO, BOSS

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/17/2013 at 12:34:41

November 19, 1917 --- February 6, 2013

Orvin Dale Yeoman, 95, died peacefully in his sleep on Wednesday morning, Feb. 6, 2013, at the Monticello Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. He was born Nov. 19, 1917, in Hardy, Iowa, the second son of William and Edna (Smith) Yeoman. Orvin and Eleanor Stewart were united in marriage on Aug. 27, 1944, at Community Presbyterian Church in Cascade.

Funeral services, with military honors, will be held 11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 11, at First Presbyterian Church, 211 W. First St., Monticello. Interment will follow at Oakwood Cemetery, Monticello. The Rev. Al Polito will officiate. Friends may call Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. at Goettsch Funeral Home in Monticello.

Orvin was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Eleanor; two brothers, Willard and Harold; two half brothers, Maynard and George Yeoman; and two half sisters, Loretta Huegerich and Elnora Schons. Surviving are three children, Susan DeVito of Smithfield, Va., Amy (George) Jepson of Kalamazoo, Mich., and Tom (Diane) Yeoman of Monticello; five grandchildren, John Yeoman, Hans (Theresa) Peterson, George A. (Lisa) Jepson, Stephan (Kathy) Jepson and Jane (Jason) Nuzzo; four great-grandchildren; and a sister, Roxie Boss of Waterloo.

The Yeoman family moved in the mid-1920s to Monticello, where Orvin attended community schools. He graduated from Monticello High School in 1936 and attended Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls. On July 22, 1941, he enlisted in the United States Navy. He was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois on Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. During World War II, he served as a Navy Hospital Corpsman, rising to the rank of chief petty officer, and served with the United States Marine Corps. His duty stations included Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the Palmyra and Marshall Islands in the South Pacific, and the National Naval Medical Research Institute at Bethesda, Md. While stationed at Bethesda, Orvin and two others were accidentally exposed to the polio virus and received the first polio vaccine. In 1947, Orvin and Eleanor returned to Monticello, where he joined Yeoman and Co., founded in 1929 by his father. He retired as a co-owner and production manager in 1990.

Orvin was a member of First Presbyterian Church, Burns Masonic Lodge and the American Legion. He served as scout master for Troop 66 in Monticello and was a recipient of the Silver Beaver Award, the highest honor bestowed on an adult volunteer by the Boy Scouts of America. Orvin was an avid reader, particularly stories of the old west, and was a member of the Monticello Golf Club for many years. In lieu of flowers, the family asks memorials be made to Camp Courageous in Monticello.

February 8, 2013
The Gazette - Cedar Rapids, Iowa