Wurster, June M. (Mrs. Dale E.)

June M. (Mrs. Dale E.) Wurster, 93, of Iowa City, died Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010, at Mercy Iowa City.

June Margaret Peterson was born May 25, 1917, in Necedah, Wis., the daughter of Walter R. and Bertha M. (McElwain) Peterson. Following graduation from high school in Sparta, Wis., she attended and received her B.A. degree from LaCrosse State Teachers College, now known as University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. Following graduation she taught at the high school in Lancaster, Wis. She later worked for the Chicago-Northwestern Railroad during World War II, and then for the United States Armed Forces Institute.

On June 16, 1944, she was united in marriage to Dale Erwin Wurster in Sparta. The couple and their family lived in Madison, where Dale was a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, until accepting the position of Dean of the College of Pharmacy at North Dakota State University in Fargo in 1971. The family left Fargo in 1972 when Dale became the Dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Iowa. June was a grand lady who believed in supporting her husband in his career, and caring for their family.

In her college days, June was an accomplished violinist, having been selected to play in the LaCrosse Symphony. While living in Madison following her marriage, she was active in the University Club, her children's school activities, PTA, and the League of Women Voters. Upon their family moving to Iowa City, she was a long time member of the NN Book Club. She always enjoyed reading and her flower gardens. She was an avid Hawkeye football fan. She and Dale enjoyed traveling, having seen 47 of the lower 48 states through the windshields of various cars, and they traveled abroad, including much of Europe. Her husband Dale died in April 2007.

Her family includes her two children, Dale Eric Wurster and his wife, Pamela, of North Liberty and Susan W. Biel of St. Gabriel, La.; three grandchildren, Elizabeth Ann Dobesh and her husband, Brett, Kristin Gail Wurster, and Dale Edward Wurster; two great-grandchildren, Kya and Kobe Dobesh; and siblings, Mabel Karavanic of Weirton, W.Va., and Walter Peterson and his wife, Waverly, of Marshfield, Wis.

Private funeral services will be held at Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service, with burial at Oak Hill Cemetery in Coralville.

Memorial donations can be made in June's memory to the Dale E. and June M. Wurster Fund through the University of Iowa Foundation.

Online condolences may be sent for her family through the web at