:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/WYSPN5AFYLGLVRKYXJBUWYTHHY.jpg)
Harvey Ploeger, 87, of Mount Ayr died Wednesday, May 8, 2019, at Clearview Home in Mount Ayr.
Harvey was cremated and there will be no services. Memorials are to the Veterans Honor Flight and directed to Central Iowa Honor Flight, PO Box 125, Council Bluffs, IA 51502. Online condolences may be left at www.armstrongfh.com.
Harvey John Ploeger, son of John and Titia (Timmer) Ploeger, was born Sept. 6, 1931, on a farm near Shell Rock in Butler County. He attended grade school at a country school until moving Cedar Falls. At age 17, he entered the armed forces, and served in the Navy as a Sea Bee (Construction Battalion). His unit served in the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific, the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific, Korea and Japan. He was honorably discharged in 1953.
On June 30, 1955, he married Marilyn Ann Love in Waterloo. He was hired by the Iowa State Conservation commission in 1954 as part of the farm game habitat crew. The crew worked statewide developing and maintaining farm game habitat areas on private land. In 1958, Harvey and Marilyn moved to Wapello, and Harvey became the foreman of the Odessa Wildlife Unit where they remained until 1962. Harvey was promoted to district foreman for the southwest district of the state with headquarters at the Mount Ayr Wildlife Area. The commission reorganized in 1972 and became the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and Harvey continued as the wildlife technician of the Mount Ayr Unit. Harvey retired from the DNR in 1993, and he and Marilyn moved to a small acreage near Mount Ayr.
Harvey got to fly on the honor flight to Washington, D.C. in 2015.
Harvey is survived by his wife Marilyn; son Randy (Julia) and their children, Ashley and Brandi; daughter, Lori Fellah (Mohamed) and their children, Mila and Maya; daughter, Wendy Wimer (Brian) and their children, Logan and Cody Stackhouse and Clay; brothers-in-law, Barry Love and Larry (Margitta) Love; sister-in-law, Joan (Jim) Hibben; and many nieces and nephews.
Harvey was preceded in death by his parents, sister Hermina Secor, brother-in-law Bill Secor, parents-in-law and sister-in-law Kay Love.