Zabel, Ralph - Funeral services for Ralph Zabel, age 86 of Lenox, who died Wednesday, December 1, 2004 at his home, were held Saturday, December 4, 2004, at 10:30 a.m. at the Lenox United Methodist Church with Pastor Gerry Kahler and Pastor Tim Maxa officiating. Interment with military rites accorded by the Parkinson American Legion Post No. 250 of Lenox were held in the North Fairview Cemetery in Lenox. Memorials can be directed to the Lenox Community Trust or to the United Methodist Church. Arrangements were entrusted to the Ritchie Funeral Home of Lenox.
Ralph was born August 6, 1918, in Johnson, Nebraska, the sixth of the 11 children of farmers Fred and Minnie Zabel. When Ralph was six months old, the family moved to a farm near the tiny town of Athol in north central Kansas, where they endured the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.
After graduating from Athol High School, Ralph worked briefly in Colorado before returning home to Smith County, Kansas, where he began his banking career as a teller.
He served in the Army during World War II, and while stationed at Camp Philips near Salina, Kansas, he met a local girl, his future wife, Frances “Johnnie” Johnson.
He subsequently served in the European Theater and, following VE Day, returned to the States, where he stopped off in Lincoln, Nebraska, long enough to get married before shipping out for the Pacific Theater. The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on his 27th birthday, and with the war soon over, he spent several months in Japan with the occupation force.
Following his discharge, the Zabels moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where Ralph worked in a bank, and 15 months later, with infant son in tow, they moved to Lenox, where Ralph accepted a position “with a future” in the First National Bank. There, son Doug was soon joined by a sister, JoAnn.
In 1954, Mr. Zabel went into partnership with his brother-in-law, Elmer Bose, to buy the bank, and over the next 18 years, their willingness to back farmers helped expand the bank’s customer base to surrounding counties and increased their deposits and loans by more than tenfold.
After selling the bank in 1972, Ralph remained on as president for seven years until semi-retiring in 1979.
His youngest son, Gary, followed him into the bank and today heads the Lenox and Corning offices of what is now called Union Bank.
During his career, Ralph was elected president of the Iowa Independent Bankers Association, and he was active in the Lenox community and his church.
As a member of the school board, he helped pass a bond issue to build a major addition to the Lenox schoolhouse. He was a founder of the Lenox Development Corporation, which in its five decades has fulfilled his vision by helping to bring several businesses to Lenox and financing numerous local infrastructure and civic improvement projects that have helped keep Lenox viable and even growing.
As finance chair of the Lenox United Methodist Church, he led the drive to add the church’s educational annex in the mid-1960s.
Following his retirement, he served a term on the Lenox City Council and was twice elected mayor. He was a member of the Lenox Rotary Club for 56 years, and he and Johnnie delivered Meals on Wheels until recently.
A lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan, Ralph also waged a decades-long, generally losing battle with the game of golf, and his two holes-in-one are a source of unending amazement to his offspring.
While Ralph enjoyed playing bridge with friends and watching local school sports, he didn’t have many other leisure time pursuits. Enjoying the company of family and friends, meeting new friends and improving the community of Lenox were his adult life hobbies.
He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Johnnie; son Doug of Austin, Texas; daughter Jo and her husband Dennis Tieszen of Waterloo; son Gary and his wife Karen of Lenox; grandson Ben Newport and his wife Corinne and daughter Lexi of Cedar Rapids; granddaughter Chelsea Newport of Coralville; step-grandson Andy Brammer of Lenox; step-grandson Rob Brammer and his wife Nicky and children Lane and Peyton of Bethesda. He is also survived by his sisters Esther Bose of Lenox; Wilma Zabel and Arlene Higgins of Lincoln, Nebraska; Verna Flora of Denver, Colorado; and Leola Janssen of Syracuse, Nebraska; and a brother, Ray Zabel of Decatur, Illinois.
Ralph was preceded in death by a sister, Lois Busche, and by brothers Elmer, Earl and Lawrence.
May God grant comfort and strength to those who mourn Ralph’s passing. |