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Served with Honor - United States Military Veteran
Russell Dale Rasmussen
Russell Dale Rasmussen
June 15, 1922 - April 27, 2010
Grinnell, Iowa

Memorial Service: 2:00 p.m., Saturday May 01, 2010 at Carman Center of the Mayflower Community
Graveside Service: 1:00 p.m., Saturday May 01, 2010 at Hazelwood Cemetery in Grinnell, Iowa
Russell was born on June 15, 1922, in Grand Island, Nebraska to Peter and Laura Lee Higginbotham Rasmussen. He grew up amidst the Depression and Dust Bowl near Hazard, Nebraska. Following his graduation from Hazard High School in 1940, he attended business college for 15 months. Drafted during World War II, he trained and served as a squad leader in the 17th Armored Infantry Battalion of the 12th Armored Division. He served in the Battle of the Rhineland and the Battle of Central Europe. He was wounded and captured on January 20, 1945 and spent the rest of the war in Stalag V-A and 317-C. A chapter in, Our War: Stories from Poweshiek County’s Greatest Generation, tells his story as a POW. Following WW II he served as a platoon sergeant with the 45th Mechanized Calvary Reconnaissance Squadron in the Panama Canal Zone. He participated in a jungle rescue mission of a plane downed in the Amazon Jungle Basin of Peru.

Using his GI Bill, he was financially able to attend Park College in Missouri. On June 1, 1954, he was married to Mary Parker at the Park College Chapel the day after he graduated. He graduated from the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. His career involved a brief time in a Methodist church in Harlan, Indiana, and later he served as pastor of United Church of Christ churches in Arrow Rock, Missouri, Hiawatha, Olds, Gilman, Winthrop, Iowa and Dubois, Indiana. Rev. Rasmussen was a faithful servant of God. In 1984, he retired and moved to Grinnell. His commitment to God and the church was lived out in his membership in the United Church of Christ-Congregational in Grinnell.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Rasmussen of Grinnell; one daughter, Kay (Bruce) Wettlaufer of Marshall, Missouri; three sons, Mark (Elaine) Rasmussen of Kansas City, Missouri, David Rasmussen of Newton, and Paul (Becky) Rasmussen of Grinnell; and three grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents.

Memorials may be directed to the United Church of Christ-Congregational of Grinnell or to the Mayflower Human Needs fund.

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