Dorothy Akkerman

Dorothy Theresa Koch Messer Akkerman

Dorothy Akkerman, 99, passed away on Monday, September 30, 2019 at Parkview Manor Nursing Home in Reinbeck. Visitation will be held from 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 2nd, at the Abels Funeral and Cremation Service, Engelkes Chapel in Grundy Center. A funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday October 3rd at the Pleasant Valley Reformed Church in rural Holland, two miles west of Fern. There will be a short visitation one hour prior to the funeral service at the church. Burial will take place at 1:00 p.m. at Sheller Cemetery in rural Ivester. Memorials may be directed to the Pleasant Valley Reformed Church.

Dorothy was born on May 24, 1920 in Grundy County to Fred & Theresa (Stickfort) Koch. She was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith and educated in Grundy County rural schools. She trained in laboratory and x-ray and worked at Allen Memorial Hospital during the WWII years. She married Norman Messer in December 1949 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Waterloo.  They farmed in the Grundy Center and Denver, Iowa areas during their married life. Norman died in April 1966.  Dorothy moved to Waterloo and became a lab and dental assistant to Dr. A.T. Watson and later for Dr. Glenn C. Miller. She married John Akkerman on May 24, 1968 at the Little Brown Church in Nashua and together they raised his children, Dale & Berdell. They farmed near Fern and retired to Parkersburg in 1981.  John died on August 26, 2003.  Dorothy moved to Westview Estates Independent Living Apartments in Reinbeck in the summer of 2006 and to the Parkview Manor Nursing Home in Reinbeck in August 2016. Dorothy was a very hard worker throughout her life and was always helping others. She was very active in all of the churches she attended wherever she lived at the time, worked both on and off of the farm, as well as she enjoyed attending her children’s and grandchildren’s activities.

Survivors include son Dale (Denise) Akkerman and daughter Berdell (Mark) Schauls. She has five living grandchildren: Amanda Akkerman, Alaina (Darren) Flater,  Kyle (Jessica) Schauls, Dustan (Emileigh) Eilderts, and Kelly Eilderts; eight great-grandchildren: Ava Akkerman, Maxwell, Eli & Alivia Flater, Casey Schauls, Kaden, Kodey & Kendall Eilderts, as well as her nieces and nephews and their families: Shirley (Bob) Petersen, Jim (Kathy) Koch, Arnold (Barbara) Bolman, Doris Newell, Marlene (Bob) Wilson and Dean (Pat) Bolman.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husbands, grandson Scott Schauls on Feb. 23, 2019,  brothers Bill (Margaret) Koch, Herman (Margaret) Koch, Alfred (Opal) Koch, and sister Vertina “Vernie” (Arnold) Bolman, as well as nephews Freddie Bolman, Leon Koch and Bobby Koch, and niece Verna Mae Bolman, as well as nephews in law, Robert Dufel and Irvin Newell.

Dorothy knew what the right thing to do was and she did it, and that’s how she lived her entire life. She was a kind and caring woman who made everyone feel welcome and loved. She was a precious gift to our family.