Carl Rohr

Carl Rohr

May 27, 1914 – October 19, 2011
Grinnell, Iowa

Visitation: 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., on Sunday, with the family present from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday afternoon October 23, 2011 at Smith Funeral Home, Grinnell, Iowa
Funeral Service: 10:00 a.m., Monday October 24, 2011 at Smith Funeral Home, Grinnell, Iowa
Interment: following the funeral service October 24, 2011 at Hazelwood Cemetery, Grinnell.

Memorials: Grinnell Reginal Medical Center, 210 – 4th Avenue, Grinnell, Iowa 50112.

Carl Edward Rohr was born May 27, 1914, at the family farm, originally settled by his grandparents, Henry and Wilhelmina Rohr in 1884, three miles west of Malcom, in Poweshiek county. He was the fourth of six children born to Charles and Rosa (Beck) Rohr. He graduated from Grinnell High School in 1932.

Carl was married to Ruth Maxine Windahl of Searsboro in August 10, 1936. They lived in Grinnell, where Carl worked for the United Food Market until 1940 when he was offered the job of store manager in Corning, Iowa. In 1942 he joined Midwest Biscuit Company as a regional sales representative for the western third of Iowa and was based in Carroll. He was raised in the Trinity Lutheran Church and was an active member of the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church in Carroll. In 1950, Carl and Ruth moved back to her home place four miles east of Searsboro where they farmed for five years. In 1955 they moved back to Grinnell where they had originally met and married. They were members of the St. John’s Lutheran Church in Grinnell until they moved to Rock Creek Lake, about 1970. Carl worked for McNally’s Super Valu and later the Grinnell- Newburg school district until he retired.

Home and family were the most important things in Carl’s life. In early years, every vacation was a reunion with his four brothers and one sister at the farm where they all grew up. Later, he enjoyed yearly trips to Estes Park, Colorado, and in retirement Carl & Ruth were active travelers with the Heritage Club, enjoying most the short trips within Iowa. He enjoyed hunting and fishing and kept a boat at Rock Creek Lake during the 1970’s. He lived his entire life in Iowa and never wanted to be anywhere else. During the years he worked in the grocery store he said he thought he knew nearly everyone in Grinnell. But in the last decade of his life he lamented that most of the people he knew had either moved away or were in the cemetery.

Carl is survived by two children, Gerald Rohr of Anamosa, Iowa and Gene Rohr of Grinnell; five grandchildren, Gary, Richard, and Thomas of Colorado, and Theron and Francesca of California; five great-grandchildren, Sarah, Jonathan (Jack), Dylan and Anneliese of Colorado and Nico Retsky of California; and one brother, John Rohr of Schaumburg, Illinois. Preceding him in death were his wife of 72 years, Ruth Rohr; his parents; three brothers, Erwin, Oscar, and Loring; and one sister, Henrietta.