Back to Seward Again

              (continued from 2/11/18)
Our Condo was in Building #4 of Maplewood Village in Ankeny, IA. It was new construction  so we were able to select paint colors, etc. My first SWCS responsibility was participating in the Annual SCS State Conservationist Meeting in Traverse City, Michigan. It was great to be back amongst old friends. We got moved in and changed office locations with Larry Davis in the headquarters building. We were back to Seward for Dad's 93^rd birthday and the folks 69^th wedding anniversary in October. Dad was diagnosed with Acute Leukemia and died on December 15, 1989. We made every effort to bring the staff and Board of Directors into a unified body but the lack of continuity of leadership for some time, had led to independent activity by top staff. Elaine became a “regular volunteer” clerical worker on the 22 person staff.

I learned quite quickly that “fund raising” was one of my main responsibilities. A tornado hit our building at Maplewood destroying 1 unit in March of 1990. We dedicated the D.E.Hutchinson Prairie on Earth Day at the Headquarters location later that spring. We did a lot of official travel during the year along with 29 weekends back to Seward. Mother had a stroke on December 5^th and died the next day. I alerted our Board of Directors fairly early in '91 that we desired to return to Seward by the end of the year. We received an offer to sell our Condo in mid-summer, rented an apartment where we lived till returning to our house in Seward at the end of the year.
                                                         (To be continued)