Neil Bleadorn

Neil Bleadorn

Monticello

Neil Bleadorn, 82, died Thursday, July 28, 2022, at the Jones Regional Medical Center following a sudden illness.

Funeral services will be held 10:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, at Goettsch Funeral Home with interment in the Oakwood Cemetery. Pastor Frank Shepherd will officiate at the services. Friends may call from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Goettsch Funeral Home, Monticello. By visiting Goettschonline.com you may share your thoughts, memories and condolences with Neil’s family and sign the online guest book.

Surviving are two children, Tim (Rhonda) Bleadorn, Waverly, and Terrie (Tim) Ikeda, Fresno, Calf.; three stepdaughters, Karen (Jack) Zirkelbach-Ross, Sandy (Jeff) Hinrichs and Julie (Gary) Ehrisman, all of Monticello; 11 grandchildren, Nathan and Alex Bleadorn, Austin and Aaron Ikeda, Ray and Adam (Caitlin) Zirkelbach, Nathan, Lucas, Carley and Jay Hinrichs and Beau (Madison) Ehrishman; great-grandchildren, Claire and Owen Zirkelbach, Ben and Wyatt Zirkelbach and RJ Ehrisman; two sisters, Elaine (Jim) Palmer and Judy Bleadorn; and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents; his brother, Billy (Brownie); and his wife, Arlene.

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Neil Allen Bleadorn was born Aug. 27, 1939, at Maquoketa, Iowa. He was the son of Alvin and Florence Bliss, Bleadorn. He graduated from the Monticello Community Schools in 1957 and then attended Luther College in Decorah. Neil married Marilyn Holub in January 1960. Neil was employed by Georgia Pacific in Monticello. He became a mason/brick layer and put his artistic touch on many structures in the area. He later purchased from his father and grew the Standard Oil bulk business in Monticello, and opened a Standard Oil service station (later Farm Service) on the south end of town. He also worked as a delivery driver for Julin Printing .

Neil married Arlene Aldrich Bader on July 16, 1995. The couple operated the LyBrary Family Inn in Center Junction. Neil was in his element cooking and entertaining. He enjoyed having wild game feeds and fish fries. Neil was civic-minded as a member of the Jaycees, the Monticello Volunteer Fire Department and Center Junction FD. Neil loved fishing and shared that love with others by hosting trips to the Canadian Boundary Waters, backwaters of the Mississippi in Bellevue and Guttenburg, and by annually taking groups of kids bullhead fishing in Waterville, Minn., with a gigantic fish fry afterwards. Neil was an athlete, contributing to the WAMAC Championship teams winning each of the three sports (Football, Basketball and Track) in ‘56-‘57 and eventually inducted into the Monticello HS Athletics Hall of Fame for this, and his decades working on the “Chain Gang” at the Monticello football games. He will be missed by family and friends.