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Raus, William 'Bill' C.
William “Bill” C. Raus, 85, of Winthrop, Iowa, died Monday, Feb. 18, 2013, at his home following a long illness. Memorial Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, at the Bohnenkamp- Murdoch Funeral Home & Cremation Service, Manchester, conducted by hospice chaplain Joe Kane. Family will greet friends from 9:30 a.m. until service time Saturday at the funeral home, before the service. Inurnment: Campton Cemetery, Lamont, Iowa, with military honors conducted by American Legion Post 346.
Bill was born Jan. 3, 1928, in rural Delaware County, the son of Earl H. & Selma E. (Lorenz) Raus. Bill attended rural school in Delaware County and graduated from Manchester High School. He served in the Army with the Second Armored Division in Europe from 1950 to 1952.
On Aug. 14, 1953, he married Bette J. Ahrens in Cedar Rapids. The couple made their home in Marion and Dundee before moving to Winthrop in 1991. Bill was a route driver for Wilson Foods from 1957 until 1980 and then went into farming until 1989.
Bill was a charter member of the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection, Marion, and the Immanuel Lutheran Church, Independence. He was a member of the American Legion Post #346, Lamont. He served on the Fourth District of Iowa and has served as department secretary of the VA & R, along with V.F.W. Post #2440, Independence. Bill was the founding and first president of the Chapter # 184, Mended Hearts Inc. Cedar Rapids. At the time of his death, he was member at large of the National Mended Hearts Organization and the American Heart Association, where he served as a board member in Linn County for seven years and had been an active volunteer; member of the American Heart Association's Paul Dudley White Legacy Society; and chapter member of the Founders Society of Mercy Medical Center Foundation, Cedar Rapids. Bill also volunteered with Self Help Foundation, Waverly, from 1980 to 1988.
Bill is survived by his wife, Bette; and the Loras and Rita Greif Family.
He was preceded in death by his parents and a brother, Harlan Raus.
Memorial's maybe directed to Mercy Medical Center Foundation in Cedar Rapids, in Bill's memory.
Please sign the online guest book for Bill at under obituaries.
Published in The Gazette Feb. 20, 2013.
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