Iona G. and Max B. Egeland, Teachers
The memory of Iona and Max Egeland will be honored at a graveside service to be held at 11 a.m., Monday, August 5, 2002 at Crown Hill Cemetery in Amherst. Both Iona and Max were long time Amherst residents eventually retiring to live in northern California. Iona preceded her loving husband in death by exactly three months. She passed away in the Sunbridge Care Center, Hollister, California on October 28, 2000 of complications following a fall. Max residing in Redwood City, California with his daughter Karen Richins, son-in-law Craig and grandson, Craig Bjorn Richins, followed Iona on January 28, 2001, expiring quietly in his sleep at home.
They were both native to the Buckeye state. Iona was born March 1, 1912 in Bluffton, a mall farming community northwestern Ohio. She grew up there, graduating from Bluffton College in 1934. Max was born in Cleveland on September 27, 1913. He grew up in Amherst and also attended Bluffton College. He lived in Amherst with his wife and family until retirement in 1978.
They decided to follow the sun. Saying goodbye to the ancestral home no Spring Street, Max and Iona enjoyed a pleasant, nomadic existence, traveling in their Airstream Trailer, traversing a triangular route from Ohio to Florida to California. After making many of these trips, which took them to all parts of the US, it was now time to settle in Hollister to live near their daughter and her family. Close to Monterey and the Pacific Ocean, this quiet ranching town provided a peaceful spot for their sun to set.
Many in Amherst remember Max and as teachers in the Amherst Public Schools. Graduating from Baldwin-Walace College, Berea, in 1965, Max subsequently sparked the creativity and imaginations of many third graders at Shupe School. Sharing her sophisticated sense of beauty and design with students at both Firelands and Amherst Schools, Iona loved teaching art, which she had studied at the graduate level at Ohio State University. Hollister, their "adopted" hometown, enjoyed Max's clarinet expertise, which was displayed in the San Benito Count Community Band. The Band performed often at civic events and the county rodeo. Max and Iona are still esteemed as generous and empathetic educators, enlightened citizens of their community and loyal friends, both in Ohio and California.
Iona and Max are survived by their daughter Karen Richins and her son Craig. Iona is survived by her sister, Doneta Moyer of Mount Cory, Ohio and by her brother, Dale Good of Shelbume Vermont. Max is survived by his second cousins, Marci Thiery of Lorain and James and Howard Egeland of Geneva and Painesville, Ohio.
Arrangements are being handled by the Hempel Funeral Home, 373 Cleveland Avenue, Amherst.