Richard "Rich" Nielsen

Rich was born November 14, 1942 in Rock Valley, Iowa to Lowell and Naomi (Negless) Nielsen He graduated from Woodbury Central High School in 1960. He was drafted in October 1966 to the army and served in Vietnam from March of 1967 until March of 1968. When he returned to the states he finished his tour of duty at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He married Norma Jean Jaacks on June 1,1966 in Moville, IA. He was on guard duty in Viet Nam on their 1st anniversary. Rich worked for Mike Hagan at Hagans Body Shop for many years, then at Vern Anderson implement until retiring.Family and friends were always very important to Rich. After his retirement, he started going downtown in the morning and joined a great group of guys for coffee. Not only did he enjoy the guys he sat with but all the other guys that were there. He had a special neighbor friend, Todd Beelner that was like a son to him, they would get together, talk cars and whatever the news of the day was. He loved to travel and in 1975 he and Jeanne went to Europe touring five countries. Rich enjoyed going to Colorado every year for the last 35 years. The mountains just kept calling to him.In retirement, he was able to devout more time to his passion for cars. He loved mowing his yard & keeping it nice. He also mowed the Chad Groepper Memorial for the Groepper family. Chad rode Rich's school bus when Chad was in school.Rich is survived by his wife of 51 years, Norma Jean "Jeanne" Nielsen, brothers-in-law, Dale and wife Gayle (Eberhard) Jaacks of Kingsley, IA, and Clair Jaacks of Overton, TX, nieces and nephews; Jeff (Kelli) Jaacks of Moville, IA; Jacqueline Jaacks of Spearfish, SD; Jason (Elena) Jaacks of LasVegas, NV; Karrie (Marty) King of Sergeant Bluff, IA and Kelli (Larry) Beach of Sergeant Bluff, IA, many cousins and friends.He was preceded in death by his parents, Lowell & Naomi Nielsen, his brother Raymond and his in laws, George & Verna Jaacks.