John Hatfield 
— Creston

John Hatfield, 85, of rural Creston died July 21, 2011, at Greater Regional Hospice Home.

Celebration of life services will be 11 a.m. Friday, July 29, at the family farm, 2695 330th St., Creston, with military honors by Theodore J. Martens VFW Post No. 1797. The Rev. Tom Woodin will officiate. Interment will be 3 p.m. Saturday in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Neligh, Neb. No visitation is planned. Pearson-Coen-Beaty Family Funeral Service, 809 W. Montgomery St., Creston, is in charge of the arrangements. Memorials may be directed to a charity of choice. Online condolences may be left at www.pearsonfuneralhomes.com.

John David Hatfield, son of Mathilda (Volkman) and Jay D. Hatfield, was born Sept. 22, 1925, in Neligh, Neb.

John graduated from Neligh High School in 1943.

In 1943, John worked at a Mustang Bomber Plant in Los Angeles before enlisting in the Navy.  He was a radar operator on the Minesweeper USS YMS 380. On D-Day, his Minesweeper took the lead. He was a radar man on the USS Destroyer Amick in the South Pacific and witnessed the surrender of the Japanese that was held on the Palau Islands in 1945. 
  After the war, John attended the State Agricultural and Business College at the University of Nebraska.

On Dec. 23, 1949, John married Marian Verneil McNaught.

John and Marian farmed in both Adair and Union counties and in Nebraska. The home farm is located seven miles north of Creston. They farmed north of Neligh, Neb., which was homesteaded in the 1870s by John’s grandfather.

John sold fertilizer for Farm Fertilizer in Omaha, Neb.

In 1965, John founded Green Valley Chemical Corporation three miles north of Creston. He and fellow investors built the anhydrous ammonia plant. John was secretary of the board and prime organizer.

In 1968, John built his own phosphate fertilizer plant in Soda Springs, Idaho. In 1990, Soda Springs phosphate converted to producing an all organic phosphate. His fertilizer shipments extended throughout the mainland U.S., Canada and Hawaii.

In 1991, John and Marian were given the Richard H. Pough Award for excellence in Wildlife Habitat and Conservation Practices on Private Land.

John flew airplanes from the Cessna 140 to a A36 Beechcraft Bonanza. John supported the Greenfield Aviation Museum.

During the 1980s, John lived in Peoria, Ariz.

John was a member of the Kiwanis Club of Idaho and A.O.P.A. Aircraft Pilots Association.

John contributed to the Neligh Cemetery and Antelope Historical Museum.

Marian died in 2010.

John is survived by his daughters, Ann Merritt (husband Chris) Kellogg of Denver and Jane (husband John) Anchustegui of Boise, Idaho; grandchildren, Mark Hatfield Merritt of Creston and Jason Hatfield (Yolanda Palmer) Merritt of Zihuatanejo, Mexico; and cousins, Milt Blatter of Soda Springs, Idaho, and Grace Blatter of Bemidji Minn.