Bernard Roger Feikema

HINTON, Iowa -- Bernard Roger Feikema died on Friday, April 15, 2011, at the age of 92. He had been a resident at Touchstone Care Center in Sioux City since December 2010, after residing at Bickford Cottage in Sioux City for the previous year.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 27, at United Methodist Church in Hinton, Iowa, with the Rev. Neva Thorn-Perdue officiating. Burial will follow in Melbourne (Floyd Valley) Cemetery in rural Hinton. Visitation with the family will be 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, at Nelson-Berger Northside Chapel. In lieu of flowers, family requests memorial be made to: Care Initiatives Hospice Sioux City, 4301 Sergeant Rd, Ste 110, Sioux City, IA 51106-4516.

Bernard Feikema was called Bernie. He was born on a farm near Hawarden, Iowa, on Jan. 1, 1919. His mother and father had both immigrated from The Netherlands in the early 1900s, and, for years, could only speak limited English. He was the fifth of six children and grew up on a farm that is adjacent to the entrance to Oak Grove State Park. His parents established the farm in 1918; in 1925, they sold land to the state of Iowa on which the park was created in 1926.

Bernard Feikema graduated from Hawarden High School in 1938, and Morningside College in 1942. A highly accomplished athlete, he was a top-rated football player at Morningside. In 1955, he was the fifth player ever inducted into the Morningside College M Club Hall of Fame, and in 1995 was named to the All-Time Morningside Football Team, an honor that recognized players for more than 75 years.

Upon graduation from Morningside College, Bernie entered the U.S. Navy pre-flight program in Iowa City. He was commissioned an ensign and designated a naval aviator in 1942. For the duration of World War II, he flew lighter-than-air craft (blimps) and performed antisubmarine patrol duty, patrolling the Atlantic coast, searching for enemy submarines, flying from Brunswick, Ga., and Homestead, Fla.

While stationed in Coral Gables, Fla., in 1944, he married Mary Louise Held, with whom he had attended Morningside College.

Following the war, he returned to Iowa and accepted a job as the basketball coach and teacher at Gowrie High School. During his time in Gowrie, he completed his master's degree in education from the University of Iowa. Bernie accepted the position as superintendent of schools at Hospers, Iowa; after two years in Hospers, he moved to Hawarden, Iowa, in the same capacity in 1951. He was named assistant superintendent of schools for the Sioux City schools in 1958 and served in that position until 1970. He then opted to return to the classroom; he taught physics, chemistry, and math at Hoover Junior High School in Sioux City until his retirement in 1987.

Following his retirement from the school system, both Bernard and Mary Lou acted as chauffeurs for the Jones Eye Clinic in Sioux City; in that capacity, they transported hundreds of eye patients from Northern Iowa to have their eye surgery performed.

Over the years, Bernie was a well-known football referee in the region. He officiated hundreds of high school football games, and also many games in the North Central Conference. He also enjoyed raising, riding, and breaking quarter horses, and had many hours of enjoyment through horseback riding well into his 80s.

An avid builder and tinkerer, Bernie, painstakingly disassembled, piece by piece, the original (1880s vintage) Held home farmhouse at Mondamin Farm in Hinton, and with the salvaged materials, constructed a three car garage which still stands near the original homesite and adjacent to the clubhouse at the Deer Run Golf Course.

He and Mary Lou moved from Sioux City to Hinton in 1988, moving onto land in the Marland subdivision, which is a portion of Mary Lou's father's original farm, where she had grown up. Mary Lou Feikema passed away in 2002.

Bernard Feikema is survived by his younger sister, Gladys Van Zanten of Del Rapids, S.D.; a daughter, Barbara, who lives in the family house in Hinton; and a son, Brian, who lives in Leesburg, Va. in the Washington, D.C., area. He is also survived by two granddaughters, Suzanne Beeler of Austin, Texas, and Samantha Feikema of Baltimore, Md.; and two great-grandchildren, Sydney Beeler, and Isaac Beeler, both of Austin, Texas.

Bernie was predeceased by two children, a son, Nile Dana, who died at the age of 1; and by a daughter, Bette Ann, who died at the age of 9.

The striking thing about Bernie's life is its symmetry.

He was born in Hawarden; he returned there as Superintendent of Schools.

He attended Navy pre-flight training in Iowa City; he returned there and obtained his master's degree after the war.

He graduated from Morningside College in Sioux City; he returned to Sioux City as Assistant Superintendent of Schools.

He began his career in education as a teacher; he finished his career in the same capacity, after spending the majority of his career as a school administrator.

He retired and moved to Hinton, where he lived on land that had belonged to his father-in-law and the Held family since the 1880s, and where Mary Lou had grown up.