Daniel Reed

Daniel Raymond Reed, 83, of South English, Iowa, passed away Monday, January 29, from cardiac arrest at Bay Area Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas. 

Daniel was born November 11, 1940, in Washington, Iowa.  He was the last child of Walter and Margaret (Hammes) Reed, and the only one born in a hospital.  He was born early enough in the day that the weather was still unseasonably pleasant, and his parents could take him home.  But before the end of the day, one third of the apple trees in the state of Iowa would be killed by a fast-moving blizzard. 

Daniel grew up on a family farm, northeast of Keota.  He attended the local Catholic school through eighth grade, then graduated from the public high school in Keota. After graduation, he worked on the farm with his father, and joined the Army Reserves.  He lived nearly all his adult life on a farm near South English, Iowa, where he raised corn, soybeans, oats, wheat, cows and hogs. 

While away at Reserve camp, in 1963, Daniel became pen pals with Mary Lampe.  They were married in St. Joseph’s church in Wellman, Iowa on June 26, 1965.  

Daniel and Mary had four children:  daughter Terri, and sons Eric, Chad and Kyle.  Another son was added when Terri married Eduardo Magalhaes III, then three daughters:  Diane Holley (Eric), Angie Marie Vittetoe (Chad) and Angie Lynn Dale (Kyle).  Then came the grandchildren.  The Magalhaes family: Lydia, who married Davis Cowins in July, Nathan, Elliot and Ryan.  Eric’s children: Brady, Holley Dara and Kadie.  Chad’s children:  Amelia, Colin and Abigail.  Kyle’s children:  Deikan, Gavin and Natalee.   

As a teenager, Daniel developed an abiding enjoyment in following University of Iowa basketball, football and wrestling.  For many years, Dan and Mary had season tickets to men’s basketball and football games.  It was also a family tradition to attend the Iowa-Iowa State wrestling meet in Iowa City.   

Daniel loved Foghorn Leghorn and Pink Panther cartoons and Colonel Flagg, when he made an appearance in MASH episodes.  Due to childhood encounters, he did not like roosters. He had a gift for doing math in his head, up to and including mentally calculating compound interest. 

Daniel was a farmer his entire life.  He loved the job, and he embraced the work.  Mary walked with him through it all, step by step.  They taught their children to work hard and to appreciate a big job finished and finished well.  While the work was hard, and dirty, and hot and cold by turns, there was always humor and laughter and the joy of being together. 

Daniel was always a man who believed in God, and he taught his children to pray and to trust God.  In 1983, in a devastated cornfield, he came to understand the true state of his soul before a Holy God and his complete inability to gain heaven through any way other than the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth.  He committed his life to serving Jesus in everything he did.  He faithfully shepherded his family in this new way and they all came to follow Jesus alongside him.  He ministered in several positions in the Fellowship of Full Gospel Businessmen and the churches he attended, Berean Fellowship and Grace Community in Washington, Iowa., and Good Neighbor Fellowship in Keota, Iowa. Most of all, though, he ministered to everyone he had a conversation with.   

Daniel was an intense, funny, joyful person.  He saw beauty in the struggle and achievement of sports.  He cried when he watched war documentaries on PBS.  He saw God loving and reaching for mankind in Creation, and he saw the majesty and the pathos of humanity striving for and rebelling from God in everything around him.   

Daniel was preceded in death by his parents, Walter and Margaret Reed, his in-laws, Ernest and Ruth Lampe, siblings Eugene, Cletus, Hubert, Joanne Luttenegger, and Edmund, brothers-in-law Harold Luttenegger and Howard Stelton. 

He is survived by and will be dearly missed by his wife of fifty-eight and a half years, Mary, their children and spouses and their grandchildren.  He is also survived by his siblings, RoseEllen Stelton and James and Arby Reed, and sisters-in-law, Marcella and Audrey, all of Washington, Iowa, and Janice of Winterset, Iowa.   

A celebration of life service will be held at 4:30 pm on Sunday, April 28, 2024, in the banquet room at the Parkside YMCA in Wellman, Iowa.  The family will greet friends from 1:30 until service time. A meal will be served at the conclusion of the service.  Powell Funeral Home is helping with the arrangements.  Messages and tributes may be directed to www.powellfuneralhomes.com.