Theron Mulder

Theron Mulder, 81, of Sioux Center, IA died Wednesday, May 08, 2013 at the Royale Meadows Care Center of Sioux Center. A visitation will be held on Friday from 4-8PM with the family present from 5:30-7:30PM at First Reformed Church of Sioux Center. A prayer service for family and friends will be held on Saturday at 10:15AM at the First Reformed Church of Sioux Center. Interment will follow the prayer service in Memory Gardens Cemetery of Sioux Center. A memorial service will be held Saturday at 11AM at the First Reformed Church with Rev. Roger Voskuil officiating. The Mulder family prefer memorials be directed Crown Pointe Independent & Assisted Living Community, c/o Sioux Center Community Hospital Foundation. Theron John Mulder was born November 16, 1931 to Ernest and Maggie Mulder in Sioux Center, Iowa. He lived with his parents and four siblings on the family farm five miles west of Sioux Center and graduated from Sioux Center High School in 1948. On June 11, 1952 he married his high school sweetheart, Marcia Schut, and the next year (1953) was drafted into military service during the Korean Conflict. Theron served his military service with the Signal Corps in the United States Army, receiving his basic training at Camp Gordon, Georgia. He was stationed initially at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey and then transferred to Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, New York where he was assigned to the 999th Signal Corps. Fortunately, Theron and Marcia were able to live together throughout Theron's military service. During their assignment to Fort Wadsworth, their first child, Marla Joyce, was born in November of 1954. PFC Theron Mulder was honorably discharged from the Army in February of 1955. From New York, Theron and Marcia moved back to the family farm west of Sioux Center where they lived happily for the next 30 years. In August of 1957 their son, Eldon Paul, was born and nine and one half years later their last child, Teresa Ann, was born in January of 1967. Theron loved farming and he and Marcia built a modest, but successful dairy, pork and grain operation on Theron's ancestral farm. He was very involved with Farm Bureau and served as County President in 1976 and 1977. In the fall of 1980, Theron decided he wanted a new experience and accepted a position as assistant rural mail carrier in Sioux Center. In 1985, Theron and Marcia sold the farm and moved to Sioux Center where Theron went to work fulltime for the United States Postal Service. He retired from the Post Office in January of 1997 and went to work as a full-time community volunteer helping with numerous local charities, the Hospital Board, the Hospital Foundation and 20 annual excursions to Cary, Mississippi for church mission work. He also enjoyed his many trips to the Kenai River in Alaska where he reveled in landing salmon and halibut. At home he loved spending time with his many friends at the Senior Center playing snooker where he won and lost many-a-dime. Throughout his life, Theron was an active member of First Reformed Church in Sioux Center where he served numerous terms as both a Deacon and an Elder. He vigorously participated in all of the church's building programs and was most pleased when one of his "adopted" children, Roger Voskuil, became First Reformed Church's current pastor. Theron was blessed with 3 children, 12 grandchildren, and 8 great-grandchildren. Nothing gave him greater pleasure than hearing one of his great-grandchildren's pleas to go to "Baa-Pa" and bouncing them in his lap. In 2011, Theron and Marcia moved to Crown Pointe Independent Living Community in Sioux Center where he lived happily, surrounded by many friends, until his death on May 8, 2013. Theron is survived by his wife of 60 years, Marcia; daughters: Marla (Daryl) De Groot of Hull, IA and Teresa Bruinsma of Aurora, CO; son, Eldon (Corina) Mulder of Anchorage, AK; 12 grandchildren; 8 great-grandchildren; two brothers and sisters-in-law: Joe and Leora Mulder of Montevideo, MN and Rod and Laura Mulder of Estes Park, CO; and numerous nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his parents; brother and sister-in-law, Jim and Lois Mulder; sister and brother-in-law, Jeanette and Tony De Bey.