grave import

Obituary

Per family and Prugh Funeral Home family wanted death date shows as February 18, 2013 as that is when he died at home and found on the 21st. Frederick Edward "Fred" Meeker, 65, died Thursday, February 21, 2013 at his home in Burlington, Iowa. He was born April 29, 1947, at Burlington Hospital, the son of Harley and Samantha Hirstein Meeker. He was reared on a farm between Kingston and Meeker’s Landing, Iowa in northeastern Des Moines County.

He attended Kingston elementary and Huron junior high schools before graduating from

Mediapolis high school in 1965 where he was student council president. In 1967, he graduated from Southeastern Community College where he was voted student commencement speaker. He was a floor leader for the student senate at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, receiving his B. A. degree from that institution in 1969 with a major in social studies. He earned master's degrees in special education from the University of Texas/Dallas in 1981 and in history from Western Illinois University, Macomb, in 1993. His thesis for the latter was on the Black Hawk War. He was a member of international honor societies in education (Delta Kappa Pi) and history (Phi Alpha Theta). In the mid-90s, he worked on his doctorate in education at UNI, completing the course work and passing the comprehensive examinations in 1997.

He was elected state president of Iowa Young Democrats in 1968, and was the youngest delegate to the Democratic National Convention that year in Chicago. He was chosen to lead the Pledge of Allegiance from the podium on the closing night of that convention. He taught social studies at the college and high school levels in Iowa and drivers education and special education in Iowa and Texas. In 1970, he was elected the youngest Democratic central committee chair in Iowa. During warmer months in the 1980s he walked across the country to draw attention to the need for congressional term limits, and wrote a book, "Distances," about his experiences. He also performed professionally a one-person play about Harry Truman over twenty times around the Midwest during this period. In 1987, he co-wrote a play about the Constitutional Convention for its Bicentennial and performed at various locations a play he wrote on a state grant about Iowa history for the state’s Sesquicentennial in the 1990s.

In 2003, he completed “The Glory Makers,” a book in tribute to Coach Bud McLearn and the Mediapolis High School Bullettes girls basketball teams from 1959 to 1987.

He was of the Unitarian-Universalist persuasion. He especially enjoyed his family, friends, pets, music, and drama.

He is survived by a brother, Edwin Dale Meeker of Carman, Illinois, a nephew Jack Edwin Meeker , a great-niece Ashton Leigh Meeker, and several aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by an infant sister, Janet Sue Meeker, and his mother and father.

Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. in Prugh’s Chapel. Susan Diehl will conduct the service. Interment will be is Aspen Grove Cemetery.

The family will receive friends at Prugh's Chapel on Tuesday evening from 6:00 until 7:30 p.m.

A memorial has been established for the Des Moines County Historical Society.