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E.W. “Bill” Matthiesen, 95 years old, died at his home in Wadena, IA on December 3, 2023. Bill Matthiesen was born in Everly, IA on July 10, 1928.\u00a0 He was the son of Peter Daniel Matthiesen and Lucy Jewel Wohlenburg Matthiesen.\u00a0 He had 2 brothers and 4 sisters.\u00a0 He married Dona Mae Helen Skiles on May 11, 1952. Bill and Dona began raising their family in Dysart, IA.\u00a0 They moved to Wadena in 1962.\u00a0 Together they built an amazing family.<\/p>\n
Bill was a farmer.\u00a0 They had various kinds of livestock over the years including pigs, chickens, dogs, goats, and llamas although his focus and passion were horses.\u00a0 Bill was a founding member of the Northeast Iowa Saddle Club Association (NEISCA) and many years of our summer weekends were filled with family and friends at horse shows.\u00a0 He was also a judge at various horse shows.\u00a0 Bill drove the school bus for Valley Schools for many years. He enjoyed driving the kids each morning and then sitting with his friends to drink coffee and catch up. Bill was extremely active in the community. He was a member of the Wadena, Illyria Fire Department and a first responder.\u00a0 He was on the Fayette County Fair Board and was also a Fayette County boys 4-H leader.\u00a0 He was also on the Clayton County Farm Bureau board of directors. He was a member at the Elgin Lutheran Church.<\/p>\n
Bill was always available to lend a hand to friends and family.\u00a0 He worked to pass along his ethics and honesty to his children.\u00a0 He was always the top fan of his children and grandchildren, supporting them in everything and in every way he could.Bill loved to play cards.\u00a0 If you went to visit their house, you would more than likely end up playing a game of cards. Extended family was very important to Bill.\u00a0 Matthiesen family reunions with his siblings and their families were a favorite event every year.<\/p>\n
Bill is survived by his wife Dona and their five children, Rick (Nikki) Matthiesen of Independence, Lon (Linda) Matthiesen of Fayette, Ronda Matthiesen and friend Marianne Ford of Luana, Lorri (Bill) Knight of Strawberry Point, and Mimi (Bob) Carlson of Houston, MN. He is also survived by ten grandchildren, Kylie (Michael) Pentecost, TJ (Tabitha) Matthiesen, Dustin (Heather) Knight, Kelsey (Matt) Walsworth, Ethan (Bethany) Knight, Noah Carlson, Lillian Carlson, William Carlson, Helen Carlson, and Robbie Carlson. He is also survived by nineteen great-grandchildren, Corbin and Emersyn Matthiesen; Logan, Mason, Eva, and Sophia Pentecost; Lydia, Kyla, Delaney, Wyatt, and Myles Knight; Mya, Madelynn, Flynn, Tad, and Lucy Walsworth; Olivia, Natalie, and Alaythia Knight. He is also survived by his sister, Lyla Akkerman.<\/p>\n
The family would like to thank everyone that has helped over the past few months to allow us to follow his wishes which was to spend his final time at his house and on the farm that he loved so much with his loving wife by his side.<\/p>\n
A celebration of life will be held on July 6, 2024 in Wadena, Iowa.<\/p>\n
Leonard-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service of Elgin, Iowa is assisting the family with arrangements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
E.W. “Bill” Matthiesen, 95 years old, died at his home in Wadena, IA on December 3, 2023. Bill Matthiesen was born in Everly, IA on July 10, 1928.\u00a0 He was the son of Peter Daniel Matthiesen and Lucy Jewel Wohlenburg Matthiesen.\u00a0 He had 2 brothers and 4 sisters.\u00a0 He married Dona Mae Helen Skiles on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1141],"class_list":["post-15482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-matthiesen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15482"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15499,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15482\/revisions\/15499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}