Joseph Rodecap

Joseph “Joe” Rodecap of Des Moines passed away Saturday, October 25, 2008 at the Trinity Center at Lutheran Park Nursing Facility following a long illness. He was 90. Funeral services on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 were led by the Rev. Richard Hutton at Capital Hill Lutheran Church in Des Moines and committal was at the Coulter Cemetery.
Joseph Henry Rodecap and twin Edwin were born April 22, 1918 to Frank and Alice Rodecap in Anderson, Indiana. Joe graduated in a class of 435 students from Anderson High School where he was the mascot for the Indians basketball team. He graduated from the Dairy Herdsman course at Iowa State University and served as president of the student dairy club. Joe worked in the Borden Company’s Dairy Exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. He met Sylvia Caroline Johansen while a dairy herd production supervisor in Franklin County, IA. They were married in August 1940 at the Nazareth Lutheran Church in Coulter. Children born to this union included Marlene, John and Nadene.
Joe was a herdsman at Foxwood Farm near Elburn, Il., before returning to farm near Alexander, IA. in 1947. In 1958 the family moved to a farm north of Clarion. He raised and milked registered Brown Swiss cattle and served multiple terms as president of the Iowa State Brown Association. He was a 4-H leader for many years and served on the county fair, Farm Bureau and Dairy Herd Improvement Association boards. He was a member of the National Dairy Shrine.
Joe moved to Des Moines in 1963 taking a position with what was then the Des Moines Cooperative Dairy and then at Anderson Erickson Dairy, as a field man. He later was a housing inspector for the city of Des Moines Health Department, from which job he retired. Sylvia died suddenly in May 1972. On January 4, 1975 Joe married Beulah Karen Johansen at the Nazareth Lutheran Church in Coulter. Beulah died March 23, 2008.
Joe vigorously lobbied on the Social Security “Notch” issues, enjoyed fishing, woodworking, stamp and milk bottle collecting, garden and stamp clubs was a volunteer assistant for activities at the Trinity Center Nursing Facility and served as the unofficial “Thompson Avenue Handyman”. For a number of years he served as a volunteer citizen postal inspector, which led to his participation in processing many children’s letters to Santa. Whenever possible, he visited John on the farm in Decorah and enjoyed doing whatever he could out on the farm as well as visiting the fish hatchery.
Joe enjoyed his friends at Central Lutheran Church where he helped care for the ornamentals and flowers as well as assisting with the annual Thanksgiving Day dinners for less fortunate members of the community. When the churches merged, he became a member of Capital Hill Lutheran Church and remained very active in that congregation as well. He often related the 70+ year history of the Sycamore trees lining Thompson Avenue and his enthusiasm for the yearly Christmas light displays on Thompson Avenue was contagious. He shared many memories of his adventure growing up on a farm with another set of twins as best friends, his experience as a young man in New York at the World’s Fair, Garden Club conventions, ”Notch” trips to Washington D.C. and planting trees at the Oklahoma City bombing site. He also shared his excitement of visiting Germany when Nadene was there as an Army nurse and later the trips he and Beulah too including a very special one to Denmark.
His parents, his wives, Sylvia and Beulah, daughter, Marlene Roberts, grandson, Ray Dean Roberts, and brothers Herbert and Edwin preceded Joe in death. Survivors include John (Roberta) Rodecap, Decorah, Nadene (Bruce) Lautenschlager, Auburndale, WI, seven grandchildren, three step-grandchildren, seven great grandchildren, nine step-great grandchildren, one great great granddaughter, one step great great grandson and many nieces and nephews.
Memorials may be designated to Alzheimer’s research, the Des Moines Area Garden Club, Capita

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