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Ronald Ralph Cordes, 80, formerly of Gridley, IL, passed away on Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at the Good Samaritan Society in West Union, IA.<\/p>\nRonald Ralph Cordes, 80, formerly of Gridley, IL, passed away on Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at the Good Samaritan Society in West Union, IA.<\/p>\n
Ron was born on April 20, 1944 in New Brunswick, NJ to Rev. Ralph and Gladys (Van Rheenen) Cordes.\u00a0 He grew up in Davis, SD, Sioux Falls, SD, and Freeport, IL which were the locations of the churches his father pastored.\u00a0 Ron graduated from Freeport High School in 1962 and Northwestern College in Orange City, IA in 1967.\u00a0 While attending Northwestern, Ron met his wife of nearly 53 years, Delinda \u201cDee\u201d (Kruger).\u00a0 Dee waited patiently for Ron to return from his two years of service as a member of the Peace Corps in the Marshall Islands and one year of service in Fairbanks, AK as part of the VISTA program before they were married on January 29, 1972 at Hope Reformed Church in George, IA.\u00a0 Ron and Dee began their married life in Pekin, IL where Ron worked at Peoria State Hospital as a social worker.\u00a0 In 1974, Ron decided to complete his education by attending the University of Kansas to earn his Master of Social Work, which is where he developed his passion for Kansas Jayhawks basketball (Rock Chalk Jayhawk!).\u00a0 After earning his MSW in 1976, Ron worked at Salem Mennonite Children\u2019s Home in Flanagan, IL, followed by Zeller Mental Health Center in Peoria, IL.\u00a0 He ended his career as the Director of Social Services at OSF St. James Hospital in Pontiac, IL.\u00a0 Ron lived in Gridley, IL for 45 years where he and Dee raised their two daughters, Jennifer and Sara. Ron was a long-time member of First United\/Christ Community Church of Gridley.\u00a0 In addition to teaching Adult Sunday School, Ron was a lay speaker for the United Methodist Church.\u00a0 Throughout his adulthood, Ron remained affiliated with the Reformed Church in America which was the denomination where he was baptized and confirmed.<\/p>\n
Ron loved his wife like Christ loved the church (Ephesians 5:25) and brought his children up to follow the Lord (Ephesian 6:4).\u00a0 He made sure that his wife and daughters knew how much they were loved and how proud he was of them. Ron valued time with family and took several Cordes family fishing trips and regularly attended the triennial Cordes family reunions.\u00a0 He loved to read, enjoyed playing tennis, ping-pong, and horseshoes, and always appreciated a cold Diet Pepsi.\u00a0 He was able to make friends wherever he went, maintaining several decades-long friendships, and will be remembered as a man with a quick wit and a great laugh!<\/p>\n
In addition to his wife Dee, currently of West Union, IA, Ron is survived by his daughters, Jennifer Young (Tony) of Downs, IL and Sara Cordes-Swensen (Judd) of West Union, IA, and his grandchildren–Chance, Jacy, and Ryann Young and Anna, Jack and Leah Swensen.\u00a0 He is also survived by one brother, Donald (Deb) Cordes of Sherwood, AR.<\/p>\n
Ron\u2019s funeral will be held Monday, December 16, 2024 at 11:30 a.m. at Ramsey Reformed Church in Titonka, IA. Pastor Andy Huette will officiate.<\/p>\n
Visitation will be held one hour before the funeral service.<\/p>\n
Burial will immediately follow at Ramsey Reformed Church Cemetery.<\/p>\n
A memorial service will occur at a later date in Gridley, IL.<\/p>\n
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Christ Community Church of Gridley, 406 W 7th St., Gridley, IL 61744.<\/p>\n
Burnham-Wood-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service of West Union, Iowa is assisting the family with services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ronald Ralph Cordes, 80, formerly of Gridley, IL, passed away on Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at the Good Samaritan Society in West Union, IA. Ron was born on April 20, 1944 in New Brunswick, NJ to Rev. Ralph and Gladys (Van Rheenen) Cordes.\u00a0 He grew up in Davis, SD, Sioux Falls, SD, and Freeport, IL […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1243],"class_list":["post-17344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-cordes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17344","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=17344"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17349,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17344\/revisions\/17349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}