Roberta Atwell, 92, of Grinnell, died on Sunday, December 1, 2024 at the Mayflower Community Health Care Center in Grinnell.

Roberta L. Atwell was born April 26, 1932, near Monet, Missouri, to Hugh and Verna (Low) Atwell in Monett, Missouri. She had three siblings, one brother and two sisters, all of whom preceded her in death. Her father worked for the Gulf pipeline, and for the first nine years of her life she lived in one of the five houses the company provided for employees. Her mother was the person who kept the family grounded and cared for. Her parents moved to a farm in 1941, and she lived there until 1948 when her parents moved to Monett.

Roberta entered first grade at age five in a one room country school. After the second grade, the school was closed, and she then attended the Monett public schools graduating in 1949. She attended Southwest Missouri State College (now Missouri State University) and graduated in 1953 with a B.S. degree in education and a major in history. She received her Master's degree from the University of Missouri in 1958 and her Ed.D. in 1972.

Roberta taught English and social studies for four years in Rogersville, Missouri, a town of three hundred. Following a one-year teaching assignment in Rolla, Missouri, she returned to Southwest Missouri State for one year to teach in the teacher training school. For the next eight years Roberta taught at Central and Glendale High Schools in Springfield, Missouri. In 1967 Roberta accepted a teaching position at Southwestern Community College in Creston, Iowa. In the fall of 1972, she accepted a one-year appointment at Iowa State University, and in fall 1973 she began teaching at Grinnell College until her retirement in 1995. Roberta moved to the Mayflower Community in 2013.

Roberta will be cremated and no services will be held. Memorials may be designated to Mid Iowa Community Action (MICA) food pantry and mailed in care of the Smith Funeral Home and Crematory, PO Box 368, Grinnell, IA 50112. Memories and condolences may be shared with Roberta's family online at www.smithfh.com.