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Mitchell J. Bock

1916 - 2001

Mitchell J. Bock

Klemme - Mitchell J. Bock, 85, of Klemme, died Sunday (Feb. 4, 2001) at the Hancock County Memorial Hospital, Britt.

The funeral will be held 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Immanuel Reformed United Church of Christ in Klemme, with the Rev. Donna Buckman officiating. Interment will be at Ell Township Cemetery.

Visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. today at the Cataldo Funeral Home, Garner, and will continue one hour before services at the church.

Mitchell John Bock, the son of John and Naska (Wille) Bock, was born Feb. 3, 1916, on a farm east of Klemme. He attended country school at Ell No. 8 and graduated from Klemme High School. Following graduation, he took over his parents' farm.

On Feb. 3, 1942, he married Ida Mae Bessman at the Evangelical Reformed Church in Alden. They lived on the home farm, where they raised their children and farmed. They also raised dairy cattle and were the first in the state to have a Surge milking parlor.

In 1955, he began selling Clay Equipment and Mastermix Feed. Mitchell enjoyed traveling and had the opportunity to tour South America in 1965 in a government-sponsored program called People to People. Mitchell and Ida Mae retired from farming in 1981 and moved into Klemme. He enjoyed his family and helping others, particularly the youth.

He was a life-long member of Immanuel Reformed United Church of Christ, where he served as Sunday school superintendent, taught Sunday school and was a deacon.

He was chairman of the board for the Klemme Apartments, Clerk of the Klemme Rural Fire Department, served on the board of KADO and belonged to the Dairy Herd Improvement Association. He was also on the Creamery board and served as a trustee of the Hancock County Memorial Hospital from 1982 to 1989.

One organization that he gave much time to was the Hancock County Fair, serving as a 4-H leader, dairy superintendent and was on the Fair board as a secretary and bookkeeper for more than 30 years.

He is survived by his wife, Ida Mae, of Klemme; four children, Jim Bock and his wife, Barbara, of Fairmont, Minn., Joyce Lee and her husband, Dennis, of Dayton, Ohio, Jo Duncan and her husband, Royle, of Alden and Jean McBreen and her husband, Steven, of Ames; eight grandchildren, Laura Bock-Carlson, Susan Bock, Michelle Daniel, Anne Jones, Bethany and Jay Duncan and Justin and Blakely Rule; and a sister-in-law, Lenabelle Bock of Rockford, Ill.

He was preceded in death by his grandson, Nathaniel Mitchell Rule; his sister, Stella C. Burr; and his brother, Edwin F. Bock.

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