The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • A9

DESMOINESREGISTER.COM SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2018 9A ANKENY Robert Francis Scanlan 90, died November 13, 2018. A funeral will be held 11:00 a.m., Monday, November 19th at Our Immaculate Heart Catholic Church (510 East 1st Ankeny, IA 50021). A visitation will be held 1 hour prior to the service. Robert was born October 16, 1928 in the Valley Junction area of West Des Moines: the son of John Justin Scanlan and Pauline McDermott Scanlan. He grew up in Pocahontas County and grad- uated from Laurens High School.

He served in the US Army 1951-1953 during the Korean War as part of the 15th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division. Upon his return he graduated from Buena Vista College, and later received a Degree in Counseling from the University of Montana. In 1956 he married Beverlee Bruce Hughes and they both started 35 year teaching careers with the Des Moines School System. He taught social studies at Weeks Middle School and Lincoln High School before retiring in 1991. He thoroughly enjoyed teaching, traveling, gar- dening and staying in touch with his many friends and former students.

Robert is succeeded by four sons; Rob (Mar- garet), Bruce, Randy, and Jon (Annette); as well as grandchildren Erin (Chuck), Joe (Kara) and Jake; step grandchildren Emily (Michael) and Megan (Nick); and sister in laws Betty Scanlan and Jane Swan. He is preceded in death by his wife of 58 years, Beverlee, and a brother Bill Scanlan. Memorials may be directed to the Saint Vincent DePaul Society. Online at www.MemorialServicesOfIowa Robert Scanlan URBANDALE Shirley M. Peterson passed away Wednesday, November 14th, 2018 at Kavanagh House in Des Moines.

Shirley was born in Boone, Iowa to Francis Wayne and Eula (Rich- mond) Butrick. She grew up in Boone and attended Boone High School. Af- ter high school she moved to Des Moines where she married Merlin Edward Peterson. Shirley spent many years volunteering as a Girl Scout leader. She loved to craft and spent many weekends selling holiday crafts at local craft fairs.

Additionally, she spent weekends watching Bob Ross and loved to paint landscapes with She did not have a preference for any one type of crafts as she also spent many days mak- ing ceramics which were shared with her family members. Upon retirement her and Merlin trav- eled the country in their motor home and spent many winters in Arizona surrounded by friends. Shirley went on to be a successful business woman owning ACE Concrete for nearly 30 years where her employees delivered concrete for residential as well as business projects around central Iowa. She was preceded in death by her parents and brother Kenneth Richmond. Shirley is survived by her husband Merlin of Urbandale, by 3 daughters, Janelle (Larry) Boozell of Milo, Joni (Jerry) Osmundson of Polk City, and Melissa (Chuck) Lunney of Olathe, Kansas son Merlin of Des Moines, eleven grandchildren, twelve great grandchildren, brother Gary (Kay) Richmond of Boone and many nieces and neph- ews.

Family will greet guests on Monday, November 19, 2018 at 10:00 am and the service will begin at 11:00 am at Westover Funeral Home with burial following at the Masonic Cemetery in Des Moines. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Shriners Hospital or Kavanagh House. Shirley Peterson MUSCATINE Joan E. Eichelberger, 85, of Mus- catine, passed away on Thursday, November 15, 2018, at Lutheran Living Senior Campus. A funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m.

on Monday, November 19, 2018, at the Ralph J. Wit- tich-Riley-Freers Funeral Home. Reverend Paddy Druhl of High Prairie United Methodist Church will officiate. Burial will take place in Memorial Park Cemetery. Visitation will be from 2 until 5 p.m.

on Sun- day, November 18, 2018, at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to Hospice Compassus, Lutheran Living, or the Letts Iowa Community Volunteer Fire Department. Online condolences: www.wittichfuneralhome.com Joan was born on January 18, 1933, in Mus- catine, the daughter of Milton and Eva Hetzler Borgstadt. She married Virgil Eichelberger on February 27, 1952, at the Sweetland United Meth- odist Church in rural Muscatine. She worked with her husband, Virgil, farm- ing until their retirement in 2012.

She attended High Prairie United Methodist Church and was a member of the United Methodist Women. She loved and treasured all of her family. She enjoyed sewing, quilting, baking, and watching the wildlife around the farm. Those left to honor her memory include her husband, Virgil Eichelberger of Muscatine; her children, Jean Eichelberger of Polk City, Doug Eichelberger and wife, LuAnn, John Eichelberger and wife, Rosy, and Virginia Byrket and husband, Blake, all of Muscatine; 13 grandchildren, Chad Eichelberger and wife, Judy, Greg Eichelberger and wife, Emily, Cole Eichelberger, Janell Mills, John Mills Jr. and wife, Kendra, Ellen Eichelberger, Sam Eichelberger, Cassie Miller and husband, Chuck, Cody Austin and wife, Monica, Rebecca Tuggle and husband, Mason, Leah Tillema and husband, Josh, Doug Byrket, and Rachel Ball and husband, Collin; 18 great-grandchildren; and one sister, Beverly Blair of West Liberty.

She was preceded in death by her parents. Joan E. Eichelberger Virgil A. Maxwell 12:30 p.m. Tuesday Plymouth Church Visitation 11 a.m.

until service Iles Chapel 515-244-2121 www.IlesCares.com WEST DES MOINES Gene L. Raffensperger, 89, a 36-year writer and editor at the Des Moines Register, died Tuesday, Nov. 13, of heart failure at Western Home Communities-Deery Suites, Cedar Falls. His career at the Register included beat and gen- eral assignment roles, copy desk duty, city editor, sports editor and the formation and running of the Eastern Iowa News Bureau. Raffensperger was born Sept.

27, 1929, in Water- loo, son of Leonard and Leone Raffensperger. He graduated from Waterloo East High in 1947, where as a senior he was the quarterback on the East team coached by his father, Leonard Raffensperger. Gene attended Antioch College in Ohio for two years. It was there he met Mary Gruber of Marion, Ohio, also a student. The two transferred to the University of Iowa in 1950; Gene entered journalism school, Mary to begin training in the Iowa College of Nursing.

They married in 1951. While a stu- dent at Iowa, Gene became the Iowa City correspondent for the Des Moines Register. Frank Eyerly, managing editor at the Register, liked work and asked him to apply at the Register after he completed military service. Gene graduated from Iowa in 1952 and entered the Army, eventually being assigned to Germany. Mary and their infant son joined him there in 1954.

The three returned to the United States in 1955, and Gene became a Register staff writer in September 1955. In 1961, Register editors decided to establish a news bureau in eastern Iowa to serve the growing population in that section of the state. It was the first news operation in the state outside Des Moines. Raffensperger was chosen to run this bureau and in January 1961 opened a Register news office in Davenport. He ran it alone for six years.

This assignment saw him travel each week with notebook and camera over some part of a territory along the Mississippi River from Minnesota to Missouri, and westward to include Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and surrounding counties and towns. His stories ranged from river rat characters to murder trials. In 1965 he covered what at that time was the record flood on the Missis- sippi; in 1962 wrote an account of a hanging at the prison in Fort Madison; in 1965 he covered the fire and explosion that killed 20 attending a Thanks- giving-eve square dance in Keokuk; in 1964 he reported the return to Iowa of President Herbert Hoover for the dedication of his presidential library at West Branch; and later the state funeral for Mr. Hoover in West Branch. Starting in 1962 he covered for three years the developing story in Bu- chanan County where Old Order Amish parents resisted state efforts to place their children in public school classrooms rather than their one-room country school houses where Amish men and women with eighth-grade educations were the teachers.

Gene was there in November 1965, the day frightened Amish children fled into a cornfield rather than board a school bus for town. Pictures of running children and weeping Amish mothers taken by Register photographer Tom DeFeo were carried in newspapers and television nationwide. At the end of 1965, the Associated Press named the top three stories for the year in Iowa the Mississippi River flood, the tragic Keokuk explosion and the Amish struggle with authorities about educating their children. During his career, he won reporting awards for the President Hoover funeral and a piece how a false rumor that a Angels motorcycle gang was going to terrorize Storm Lake, Iowa, mushroomed into fear in the town. In 1967, he left the Register and spent a year in a public relations office of Deere Co.

in Moline, Ill. Raffensperger returned to Des Moines in 1968 and a year later was named city editor. It was a turbulent period with civil rights demonstrations and a brief strike by Des Moines firefighters. He returned to general assignment reporting in 1970. In 1976, he was named assistant sports editor and in 1977 began a five-year term as sports editor.

It was a time when coverage of sports was greatly expanded and the Iowa-Iowa State football rivalry was renewed after several decades without the game. He retired from the newspaper in 1993. After that, he volunteered two or three times a month as a reader for Iowa Radio Information Service reading to the sight impaired and blind. Survivors: two daughters, Nancy (Doug) Newhoff of Cedar Falls, and Mary Lynn (Jeff) Kellen of Kuwait City, Kuwait; seven grandchildren, Lisa Raffensperger, Katie (Andy) Akright, Drew (Whitney) Newhoff, Erin (Bill) Emory, Nicolet Newhoff, Will (Allesandra) Kellen and Charlie Kellen; two great-grandchildren, Robbie Akright and Addison Newhoff; and a brother, John (Sharon) Raffensperger of Iowa City. Prededed in death by: his wife, Mary in December 2017; a son, Terry in November 2017; a brother, Paul Raffensperger; a sister, Marcia Schellenberg; and his parents.

Services: Funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, No- vember 21, at St. Mark Lutheran Church, West Des Moines. Visitation will be from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m., with a time of sharing at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 20, at Caldwell Parrish Funeral Home Crematory, Urbandale.

Memorials: To St. Mark Lutheran Church, West Des Moines Special thanks to the Register friends who trekked to Cedar Falls to visit him over the past three years, and the staff at Deery Suites for their care and love of Gene. Gene Raffensperger JoanE. 85 Muscatine 15-Nov Ralph J.Wittich-Riley-Freers Funeral Home 87 DesMoines 14-Nov Funeral Home 77 DesMoines 15-Nov Westover Funeral Home JonathanKim 71 DesMoines 14-Nov Kay F. 83 Urbandale 11-Nov Westover Funeral Home 91 Perry 11-Nov Hastings Funeral Home-Perry Rose 84 DesMoines 15-Nov Funeral Home Shirley 82 Urbandale 14-Nov IlesWestover Funeral Home Gene 89 WestDesMoines 13-Nov Caldwell Parrish Funeral Urbandale Reed, 90 Clive 15-Nov onWestownParkway Robert 90 Ankeny 13-Nov MemSvcsof Iowa Additional information in display obituaries Obituaries appear in print and online at www.legacy.com/obituaries/DesMoinesRegister OBITUARIES AND DEATH NOTICES Name Age Town, State Death Date Arrangements Obituaries.