OBITUARY: John Gustav Risch

John Risch, 84, of Iowa City, died Monday, March 31, 2014 at Parkview Manor in Wellman. 

Funeral services will be held Friday, April 4, 2014 at 2 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church -- 310 N. Johnson Street in Iowa City. Interment will follow at a later date in Arlington, South Dakota.

John Gustav Risch was born November 28, 1929 to Gus and Verna Risch of Elkton, South Dakota. He graduated from high school at age 16 and enrolled at South Dakota State College in Brookings to earn a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. 

Following graduation, John worked for a brief time as an engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force. John was stationed in Korea and enjoyed playing his trombone in a dance band for the service in bases across Korea. 

John married Lorraine Lee of Arlington, South Dakota on June 20, 1954. Following an honorable discharge from the service, John became a resident maintenance engineer for the Iowa Department of Transportation and lived in Sheldon and later Denison, Iowa. In 1971, the family moved to Ames, Iowa where John was hired to create the state’s bridge maintenance inspection program. In 1978, John accepted a temporary assignment by the United States Highway Administration and the government of Saudi Arabia to work with a team of civil engineers to set up a bridge inspection program for Saudi Arabia. He enjoyed telling his family about his travels throughout Saudi Arabia, living out of a recreational vehicle with one other American and a Saudi Arabian counterpart. John enjoyed driving his family on vacations to many parts of the United States. John and Lorraine also enjoyed a couple of trips to Europe, one of which included visiting relatives in Denmark.

He retired in 1992 and moved with Lorraine to Alexandria, Minnesota, where they bought a home that fulfilled John’s dream of being able to “drive his car into the front and his boat out of the back.” Their home on Lake Latoka has been a fun place for all of his family to enjoy fishing, swimming, boating, and loon watching.

In addition to fishing and spending time with family, John was a voracious reader, a self-taught computer programmer, a wood worker, and an avid sports fan. While living in Ames, he always had a season ticket to the Iowa State Men’s Basketball games. In Alexandria, John and Lorraine were members of the local branch of the Sons of Norway and Calvary Lutheran Church. He also attended Living Word Lutheran Church of Alexandria for a time before moving to Iowa City in October 2011 to live with his daughter, Kathy, and her husband, Tim. There he joined Zion Lutheran Church of Iowa City. John always wanted to fly a plane, and he had that wish granted for his 82nd birthday. He didn’t like to just sit around and talk, but he loved to play card games, chess, backgammon, and dominoes.

John was preceded in death by his parents, Gus and Verna Risch, his wife Lorraine, and his sister Marian (Bruce) Miller. 

John is survived by daughters Katharine (Timothy) Thompson of Iowa City, Iowa and Karen (Timothy) Hieb of Eden Prairie, Minnesota; grandchildren, Kristian and Sonja Thompson; three siblings, Robert Risch and Lynette (Loren) Johnson, of Estes Park, Colorado, and Earl Risch of Chicago; nieces, nephews, and friends, including special friend Mildred Dreher of Nelson, Minnesota. 

John was a loving and generous man, who would do anything to help his family. He will be dearly missed. 
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to Zion Lutheran Church or Pathways Adult Day Care Center.

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