Obituary of Harold Castle

Harold Castle, age 89 of Tabor, SD passed away Sunday, May 07, 2017 at the Scotland Good Samaritan Center, Scotland, SD. Memorial services will be 10:00 AM, Saturday, May 13, 2017 at United Methodist Church, Tyndall, SD with Rev. Laurie Kidd officiating. Burial will be in the ZCBJ Cemetery, Tabor, SD at a later date with Military graveside rites presented by the Kortan-Hatwan American Legion Post #183 and the SDARNG Honor Guard. Visitations will begin at 5:00 PM, Friday, May 12, 2017 at the Opsahl-Kostel Memorial Chapel, Tabor, SD with the family present. Visitations will resume one hour prior to the service at the church. On-line condolences may be sent at: www.opsahl-kostelfuneralhome.com.

Harold Jess Castle was born December 21, 1927 in Castana, IA to James and Dorothy (Ultsch) Castle.  Harold graduated from Castana High School. He married Gladys Jones on February 4, 1951 in Onawa, IA.  To this union they had 3 sons.

Harold grew up in rural Iowa during the 30’s depression era in a family of 11 children.  It was a remarkable time in the country and the family survived by everyone taking any type of job to help feed them.  The stories are endless, but in todays mechanized farming environment it is hard to imagine they harvested corn by hand with horse and wagon, and were paid by how many bushels they could pick. 

Harold joined the Army in December 1945 and was immediately sent to Fort Snelling, MN for processing, nice place to visit in January.  After basics, he was shipped to VA for possible movement to Europe, but was instead deployed to Washington State where he was in the Water Purification Engineers. 

Harold and Gladys moved from Iowa to Yankton in 1952.  He started working at Morgen Manufacturing as a “Hod” carrier, basically tending the brick layers with bricks and mortar.   As Morgens grew into a manufacturing company, Harold moved up in the company to Vice President of Manufacturing.  He worked for Morgen’s for over 40 years enjoying a long successful career, using his creative nature to help develop many system processes and earned several patents. 

Harold and Gladys square danced together for over 50 years.  For the last five years they did ballroom dancing with the Happy Memory Band at nursing homes across southeast South Dakota.  As members of the Methodist Church in Yankton and Tyndall, they were active in various projects including youth leadership, teaching Sunday School and helping with building campaigns. 

Harold and Gladys were devoted to each other, most days Harold would go home for lunch, and if you looked you could see Gladys sitting in the window waiting for him to join her for lunch.

Harold is survived by three sons:  Lyle (Cindy Dwight) Castle of Batavia, IL, Ron (Faith) Castle of Mitchel, SD and Jess (Tammy) Castle of Pierre, SD; grandchildren: Alexis (Matthew) Houseward, Tyler (Becky) Castle, Alecia (Jason) Heidemann, Jamie Goglin, Alex Thurber and Jessica Naylor; great-grandchildren: Briella, Ioan and Rhys Houseward, Aylianna, Madelyn, Decklan and Nalia Castle, Cole, Gavin, Tara and Cobain Heidemann; many nieces and nephews; sister, Darlene Williams and brothers:  Les, Jim, and Gary Castle.

Harold was preceded in death by grandson, Russell Castle; wife, Gladys; his parents, James and Dorothy; sisters, Ada Habink and Eva Schmacher; brothers, George, Floyd, Russ, and Art Castle.