Neil Joseph Petsche was born on October 16, 1948 to Anthony and Margery (Schwery) Petsche in Harlan, Iowa. He was baptized and confirmed at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Portsmouth where he remained a life-long member. He graduated from Portsmouth High School with the Class of 1966.
On May 30, 1969, he was united in marriage to Margaret “Peg” Schmitz at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Panama, Iowa. They became parents to three children: Donald, David, and Patti Jo.
Neil was passionate about farming and farmed most of his life. He owned Town Cupboard Grocery in Portsmouth between 1982 and 1989 but returned to farming in 1986. Due to medical reasons, he had to retire from farming in 2001 but found a new passion in gardening and had a huge garden every year.
He was also passionate about sports. Besides being the number one fan of the Portsmouth Town Team, he played and coached basketball, bowled on the Rocket Bowling Team, but his first love was baseball which he played and coached in Portsmouth.
He served as mayor of Portsmouth for ten years, on the Shelby County Catholic Schools school board, his parish council, and had a happy and positive outlook on life.
Neil was at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa, when he died on Saturday, June 4, 2016 at the age of sixty-seven years, seven months, and nineteen days. He was preceded in death by his parents and brothers: Eugene, Donald, William, and Joseph.
He is survived by his wife of forty-seven years Peg Petsche of Portsmouth, Iowa; children: Donald Petsche and his wife Diane of Ankeny, Iowa, David Petsche of Portsmouth, and Patti Jo and her husband Mike Olsen of Persia, Iowa; five grandchildren: Mallory, Jennifer, and Nathan Petsche and Lily and Tucker Olsen; sisters Mary and her husband Larry Raid of Denmark, Iowa and Janet and her husband Tom Erickson of Crawfordsville, Iowa; other family members and many friends.
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