Wendell Arthur Hagen
2 November 1940 — 14 May 2024 · aged 83
Winneshiek County farmer, Army veteran and the neighbor whose coffee pot was always on
Decorah, United States Born in Decorah, Winneshiek County, Iowa Resting at Trinity Lutheran Churchyard, Decorah, IowaAbout Wendell
It rained the morning Wendell Hagen was born, in November 1940, and his mother liked to say that was why he never worried about weather: he had seen the worst of it before he could crawl.
He was born on the family farm outside Decorah, in Winneshiek County, Iowa, the grandson of Norwegian immigrants who had broken the same ground in 1884. He raised calves for FFA at Decorah High School, took a short course in farm management at Iowa State, and in 1961 was drafted into the US Army and sent to West Germany, where he spent two years repairing trucks near the Fulda Gap and learning that the Cold War was mostly mud and waiting. He came home in 1963, married Marilyn Jorgensen that autumn, and took over the farm from his father: eighty acres, a dozen Holsteins and a borrowed tractor.
Over sixty years he stretched those eighty acres to four hundred, moving from dairy to corn, soybeans and a few beef cattle, and kept every fencepost straight by stubbornness. When the Upper Iowa River rose in June 2008, he drove a hay wagon through knee-deep water to move a neighbor's calves, then went back and did it for another neighbor, and he never mentioned it at church. He did not lock his kitchen door. The coffee pot was always on, and a seed salesman, a lost tourist and a grieving widow all got the same cup and the same unhurried listening.
He made lefse every Christmas, fished for walleye on opening weekend, followed the Minnesota Twins with patience bordering on faith, and planted a hundred oak seedlings every spring for thirty years “so somebody's grandkids can climb them.” He was officially retired in 2015, in the sense that his son Eric did the driving.
Wendell died on 14 May 2024, aged eighty-three, on the farm where he was born, in the middle of planting season, which his family agrees was the one time he would have chosen. He is survived by Marilyn, his wife of sixty-one years; his daughter Karen and son Eric; five grandchildren; and his brother Orville. He will be buried with military honors in the churchyard at Trinity Lutheran, a mile down the gravel road.
“Plant the oaks anyway. Somebody's grandkids will want to climb them.”
- Faith
- Lutheran
- Place of birth
- Decorah, Winneshiek County, Iowa
- Resting place
- Trinity Lutheran Churchyard, Decorah, Iowa
- Passed away
- 14 May 2024, Decorah
Funeral Service with military honors
Sunday, 19 May 2024 at 07:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
High School Diploma, FFA Chapter Member
Decorah High School1954 – 1958 · Decorah, Iowa
Raised and showed Holstein calves and was chapter vice president.
Farm Management Short Course
Iowa State University1958 – 1959 · Ames, Iowa
Came home with a notebook full of figures and no intention of using most of them.
Truck Mechanic, West Germany
US Army1961 – 1963 · Fulda, West Germany
Kept the motor pool running through two German winters.
Married Marilyn Jorgensen
1963 · Decorah, Iowa
Sixty-one years, two children, one farm.
Farmer
Hagen Family Farm1963 – 2024 · Winneshiek County, Iowa
Corn, soybeans, beef cattle and thirty years of oak seedlings.
Church Council Member
Trinity Lutheran Church1975 – 2010 · Decorah, Iowa
Fixed the furnace, the roof and, once, an argument over the hymnals.
Iowa Century Farm Designation
Iowa Department of Agriculture1984 · Iowa
For a farm held by the same family for more than one hundred years.
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Family & connections
Wendell is survived by
- Marilyn Hagen· Spouse
- Karen Hagen Olson· Daughter
- Eric Hagen· Son
- Orville Hagen· Brother
- 5 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Wendell.
Knew Wendell? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- GH
Distant cousin, Voss, Norway
Wendell visited our family farm in Hordaland in 2002 and stood a long time looking at the barn. He said, “My grandfather left here with nothing.” He left a hundred-dollar bill under the coffee cup and a standing invitation to Iowa. We went. His coffee was better.
- NO
Grandson
Grandpa let me drive the tractor at nine, with the rule that I could never touch the radio. At fifteen I asked why. He said, “Because the Twins might be losing and a man deserves to hear it in his own time.” I'm planting oaks this spring.
- LB
Army buddy from West Germany
We shared a motor pool in Fulda in 1962. Wendell could tell the make of a truck by its cough. He made us coffee from a pot he somehow smuggled from Iowa. Sixty years later he mailed me his lefse recipe. I have never made it correctly.
- PA
Pastor, Trinity Lutheran Church
Wendell sat in the fourth pew, left side, for fifty-nine years and fixed everything in the building that was broken, usually before anyone noticed. He once said grace at a potluck with his eyes open because he was watching the casseroles. God, I believe, understood.
- GT
Seed dealer
I sold Wendell seed for thirty-one years and drank more of his coffee than I sold him bags. He would ask about my kids first, the weather second and the price last. That's not how I was trained, but it's how I learned to do the job.
- DS
Neighbor and fellow farmer
In 2008 Wendell drove his hay wagon through the flood to get my calves out. I thanked him. He said, “You'd have done the same.” I hope that's true. I have been trying to live up to it ever since.
