Daniel McFarland

Daniel McFarland age 89 of Fredericksburg, IA, died Wednesday, November 30, 2022, at his home. Funeral Services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, December 6, 2022, at Peace United Church of Christ in Fredericksburg with Rev. Scott Smith officiating. Interment will be held at Rose Hill Cemetery, Fredericksburg with Keri Fountain, Shelley Carter, Kimberly Beineke, Laura Clausing, Daniel McFarland, Robert McFarland, Elizabeth Lemke, Jonathan Macken, William Stabe, Fianna Stabe, and Keller Petrie serving as pallbearers. Friends may greet the family from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m. Monday, December 5, 2022, at Hugeback - Johnson Funeral Home & Crematory in Fredericksburg. Visitation continues an hour prior to the service at the church on Tuesday. Daniel Leach McFarland, age 89, of Fredericksburg, IA died of a heart attack on November 30, 2022 while outside doing his nightly chores on his family farm. Dan was born on June 4, 1933, in the same farmhouse bedroom where he spent the last years of his life. Dan’s childhood was filled with typical farm adventure, playing circus in the haymow, riding his horse Tony, playing with his dog Terry, taking care of barn cats, and fostering a life-long love of baseball. Dan began his education at the Barker schoolhouse just down the road from his farm and graduated from Fredericksburg High School in 1951. He studied history at the University of Iowa, graduating in 1955, then marrying his high school sweetheart, Constance JoAnn Stong of Fredericksburg, IA that summer, on August 21, 1955. Dan began his twenty-one-year military career with ROTC at the U of I. He graduated from Navigator training at Randolph AFB in Texas, and his first duty assignment was at McClellan AFB in California, where he flew Anti Submarine missions off the west coast of the USA. He continued his service in the Air Force Reserves at Minneapolis Reserve Center. After ten years in the USAF, he transferred to the US Navy, flying C-118 missions around the world, traveling to over 30 countries, including Iceland, Spain, Crete, Vietnam, and Morocco, eventually retiring at the rank of Commander. Dan moved back to Iowa in 1958, teaching in the Nashua and Fayette School Districts until 1963. He then went to work in Cedar Rapids as an insurance claims adjuster, traveling back to farm to work with his parents on the weekends, eventually moving back to Fredericksburg in 1967 to farm full time. Dan met his second wife, Linda Kay Marksteiner, of Chicago, IL through the Navy Reserves at Glenview Naval Station in Chicago. They married on December 7, 1974. Throughout his life, Dan was a passionate breeder of registered Polled Hereford cattle, serving on the Board of Directors for the National Polled Hereford Association, and was instrumental in saving the Gammon Barn, birthplace of the breed, by having it placed on the National Register of Historic Places and organizing its move to the Iowa State Fair Grounds. He was inducted into the Iowa Polled Hereford Hall of Fame in 2009. Dan began raising bison in 1993 and will be remembered for his connection to the land, his pride in his family history and the designation of their Heritage farm, his tours of the bison and his hollyhock dolls. Dan always said a good farmer plants a few trees and pours a little concrete each year. Throughout life, Dan continued to foster his appreciation for new experiences, hosting exchange students, gifting his grandchildren graduation trips to countries around the world, and reminding everyone it only costs a little more to go first class. He will be remembered for his smile, his warm and welcoming nature, and the expectation that every farmhouse visitor should take a seat in the kitchen to enjoy some bison jerky, a cat on their lap and a whiskey sour in hand. He leaves behind his five children, Ken (Cathy) McFarland of Fredericksburg; Susan (Jerry) Macken of Readlyn; Mary (Mickey) Ryan of Sisters, OR; Martha McFarland of Fredericksburg; and Emily (Brandon) Petrie of Fresno, CA; his grandchildren Keri (Shane) Fountain of Fredericksburg; Shelley (Paul) Carter of Mountain Home, ID; Kimberly (Danny) Beineke of Waterloo; Laura (Cody) Clausing of Waverly; Daniel (Stacy) McFarland of Papillion NE; Robert (Amanda) McFarland of Florence, TX; Elizabeth (Daniel) Lemke of Cedar Rapids; Jonathan (Jocelyn) Macken of Readlyn; William (Adrian) Stabe of Scott Air Force Base, IL; Fianna Stabe of Canby, OR; Keller Petrie of Fresno, CA; and 20 great-grandchildren. Dan is preceded in death by his parents, Dorothy Leone (Leach) McFarland and Donald Lester McFarland and his brother Richard Lyle McFarland