Rev. Ralph Julius BEEBE

BEEBE, DODGE, ENGBERG, ANDERSON, BARRENT

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 6/25/2014 at 12:25:25

May 25, 1889 --- May 25, 1985

RALPH BEEBE RITES TUESDAY

The Rev. Ralph Julius Beebe, 96, a longtime resident of the Mayflower Home here, died Saturday, May 25, at the Wynderest Nursing Home in Clinton. Funeral services were conducted at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Buckley Hall of the Mayflower Home, with the Rev. Philip J. Ramstad, pastor of the Grinnell United Church of Christ-Congregational, officiating. Pianist was Norman Goodbrod, and vocalist was Marvin E. Kelley. Pallbearers were Wesley Ahrens, Albert C. Eisenman, Lyman Case, Donovan Evans, F. Addison Jones, Harold Brown and Willard Wells. Memorials in Mr. Beebe's name may be made to the Mayflower Home.

The son of Julius Rockwell and Anna Marie Dodge Beebe, he was born May 25, 1889, in Aberdeen, S.D. He grew up in South Dakota and Montana. He married to Mae Anna Engberg at Lothair, Mont., on Oct. 22, 1913. After attending Fargo College and graduating from the University of Montana in 1927, he began his ministry in small Montana towns. In 1927 he and his family moved to Ontario, Ill., and while administering a rural pastorate there he commuted to the Chicago Theological Seminary.

In 1930 he and his wife moved to Primghar, Iowa, where he served a Congregational church. In addition to his duties as pastor, he conducted shorthand and typing classes for young people and adults to enable them to get jobs. After his stay in Primghar, he became pastor of the Clarion Congregational Church in 1939, serving until 1946 when he assumed the pastorage of the Sibley Congregational Church. During the 1950s he served two terms as scribe of the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches for two terms. He and Mrs. Beebe came to the Mayflower Home from Sibley where he was named pastor emeritus of the United Church of Christ-Congregational.

During his residence at the Mayflower Home, he served churches in the area on a part-time basis. His longest interim pastorates were at Congregational churches in Grinnell, Belle Plaine, Oskaloosa, Clemons, Green Mountain and Newton. He also served at the First Baptist Church in Grinnell. During his retirement he officiated 31 marriages and 151 funerals. He was a member of the United Church of Christ-Congregational in Grinnell and was a 50-year member of the Masonic Lodge. In May 1972 he was named Poweshiek County's outstanding senior citizen by the Grinnell Kiwanis Club. The new second-floor addition to the Mayflower Home Health Care Center was named Beebe Hall by the Mayflower Home Board of Trustees in 1983.

Survivors include four children, Merrill R. Beebe of Porterville, Calif.; Marjorie Anderson of Primghar, Vivian Barrent of Clinton and Mary Ann Beebe of Elgin, Ill.; 20 grandchildren; 34 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-granddaughter. He was preceded in death by his parents; one son, Harold; his wife, Mae; two sisters and one brother.

The Grinnell Herald-Register - Grinnell, Iowa
May 1985

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[former pastor in Clarion, Iowa]