Ivan Walter Schroeder
Ivan Walter (I.W.) Schroeder was a great person, husband and father. Ivan was born on December 15, 1919 in Hancock County, Iowa to farming parents Walter Henry and Ella Dorothea Woltmann Schroeder. He graduated from Lewis High School in Lewis, Iowa. In 1938 he started working for the Iowa State Telephone Company. He married Veta B. Marshall on November 23, 1940 in Lewis Iowa. Ivan and Veta left their Iowa families in 1942 and moved to Galesburg, Illinois so he could start working for the C.B. &Q. Railroad.
I.W. was drafted into the Army in 1944. During WWII he served in the US Army with the 745th Railroad Operating Battalion Company D in Europe from 1944 to 1946. When his Army days ended, Ivan and Veta returned to Galesburg so he could resume working for the C.B. & Q. Ivan worked for the C.B. &Q. and the Burlington Northern Railroads as a fireman and an engineer until he retired in 1980.
He was a hard worker and he rarely laid off when called for work. Ivan and Veta had three daughters, Delores, Karen, and Janice. Ivan loved his family and he always made sure they took a nice family vacation every year. When he was home between runs to Chicago and even after he retired he enjoyed gardening, fixing things around the house and spending time with his children and later grandchildren. Ivan and Veta were married 63 years. Ivan died first from cancer on May 2, 2004 and Veta died soon after on August 17, 2004. They are buried in the Memorial Park Cemetery in Galesburg, Illinois.
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