Richard W. "Rick" Brodersen
November 28, 1943 — April 1, 2019
Richard William ‘Rick’ Brodersen was born on November 28, 1943, at Council Bluffs IA to Hans Victor and Gertrude Milburn Brodersen. He was a past-due delivery weighing in at 11 or 12 pounds!
Rick was the youngest of seven children, 3 sons, 4 daughters. They lived on Oakwood Farm, four miles northwest of Denison. His early love was horses, which continued to the present day. He was riding bareback on his horse when he was a preschooler. He would often ride his horse Rocket to school.
Rick’s father was a farmer, his mother a teacher in the country schools. Rick always said it was an injustice that a child should be the student of his mother-teacher!
Rick’s grandfather was one-half of the Balle-Brodersen Mercantile founded in 1905 and an early settler. Rick spent some summer time at the cottage on Big Sand Lake near Park Rapids MN where he loved to fish and where later he spent his honeymoon.
Graduating with the Class of 1962, Rick worked the summer in Colorado, living with his sister Rosanne and her husband Bill Alcola. He was a pre-med student at Mesa College in Grand Junction. He returned to Iowa and renovated the main floor of the house he grew up in for his beloved mother. He then enrolled at UNI to continue his education.
On November 9, 1963, Rick married Judy Swanson after a two-year courtship. They were married at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church by Father Edmund F. Casey. Rick was raised in the Methodist tradition, but as a junior/senior in high school, he was seeking something more. He attended each of the churches in Denison and said the one that inspired him was the Catholic Church to which he converted at the time of his marriage.
Rick and Judy moved to Omaha where they lived for 9 ½ years and where Rick worked in the traffic and tariffs division of Union Pacific Railroad. At the desire of his parents and with three young sons preferred to be reared on the farm where he grew up, they returned to Denison in 1972. The farm was now known as Stonebrook Hollow, where Rick and Judy raised their family of 5 sons and 2 daughters, now in the 127th year of Brodersen ownership. Rick worked for Farmland Foods in Traffic, ultimately becoming Traffic Manager.
In 1983 they purchased 7UP Distributing in Denison and ran routes in 11 counties, maintaining their warehouse, 3 route trucks, employees, and many accounts. When the State of Iowa went out of the retail liquor business, they sold 7UP and moved across the street, calling their store Spirit Cellar. They purchased the stores in Denison, Ida Grove, and Jefferson.
Rick sold the stores and inventory in 1993 and returned to Farmland where he worked nights. He worked 28 years for Farmland, from which he retired in 2012.
He had sold his dozen horses a few years previous and spent his retirement time enjoying and expanding his interest in gardening, both flowers and vegetables, reading, playing Euchre and dominoes, and researching ancestry with Judy in courthouses and cemeteries in Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota.
His death was sudden and unexpected on April 1, 2019, at the age of 75 years, 4 months, 4 days. Preceding him in death were his parents, his mother-in-law Irene, six premature babies, all of his siblings: Ken on April 26, 1945, at Cham Germany 12 days before the end of WWII, brother Dutch, sisters Barbara Lingle (Bob), Denison, Rosanne Alcola (Bill) Denver, Gretchen Hamlett, Delta CO, and Mary Bohnker (Norm), Wheat Ridge CO.
Surviving are his wife of 55 years, Judy, and their seven children: Mark of Ankeny, Brett (Beth) of Lincoln, Ryan (Amy) of Harlan, Brock (Dawn) of Ankeny, Jonah of Lincoln, Anna Rice (Cody) of Ankeny, and Meghan Brodersen of Minneapolis; 15 grandchildren: Nicholas, Victoria, Britta, Erica (Mark), Katherine (Brett), Sarah, Erik (Ryan), Thomas, Elizabeth (Brock), Gretchen, Clark, Lorelei, Thora (Jonah), Mauren, Emrik (Anna); 2 great-granddaughters: Valeriana (Erica) and Harper (Nick); one step-granddaughter: Devin (Brett); sisters-in-law: Darlene Reis of Denison; Patricia Getty of Alphretta GA, Corrine (Rick) Bogart of Omaha; brothers-in-law: Jerry (Carol) Swanson of Denison and Gail (Dianne) Swanson of Davenport; and 49 nieces and nephews.
Rick was the youngest of seven children, 3 sons, 4 daughters. They lived on Oakwood Farm, four miles northwest of Denison. His early love was horses, which continued to the present day. He was riding bareback on his horse when he was a preschooler. He would often ride his horse Rocket to school.
Rick’s father was a farmer, his mother a teacher in the country schools. Rick always said it was an injustice that a child should be the student of his mother-teacher!
Rick’s grandfather was one-half of the Balle-Brodersen Mercantile founded in 1905 and an early settler. Rick spent some summer time at the cottage on Big Sand Lake near Park Rapids MN where he loved to fish and where later he spent his honeymoon.
Graduating with the Class of 1962, Rick worked the summer in Colorado, living with his sister Rosanne and her husband Bill Alcola. He was a pre-med student at Mesa College in Grand Junction. He returned to Iowa and renovated the main floor of the house he grew up in for his beloved mother. He then enrolled at UNI to continue his education.
On November 9, 1963, Rick married Judy Swanson after a two-year courtship. They were married at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church by Father Edmund F. Casey. Rick was raised in the Methodist tradition, but as a junior/senior in high school, he was seeking something more. He attended each of the churches in Denison and said the one that inspired him was the Catholic Church to which he converted at the time of his marriage.
Rick and Judy moved to Omaha where they lived for 9 ½ years and where Rick worked in the traffic and tariffs division of Union Pacific Railroad. At the desire of his parents and with three young sons preferred to be reared on the farm where he grew up, they returned to Denison in 1972. The farm was now known as Stonebrook Hollow, where Rick and Judy raised their family of 5 sons and 2 daughters, now in the 127th year of Brodersen ownership. Rick worked for Farmland Foods in Traffic, ultimately becoming Traffic Manager.
In 1983 they purchased 7UP Distributing in Denison and ran routes in 11 counties, maintaining their warehouse, 3 route trucks, employees, and many accounts. When the State of Iowa went out of the retail liquor business, they sold 7UP and moved across the street, calling their store Spirit Cellar. They purchased the stores in Denison, Ida Grove, and Jefferson.
Rick sold the stores and inventory in 1993 and returned to Farmland where he worked nights. He worked 28 years for Farmland, from which he retired in 2012.
He had sold his dozen horses a few years previous and spent his retirement time enjoying and expanding his interest in gardening, both flowers and vegetables, reading, playing Euchre and dominoes, and researching ancestry with Judy in courthouses and cemeteries in Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota.
His death was sudden and unexpected on April 1, 2019, at the age of 75 years, 4 months, 4 days. Preceding him in death were his parents, his mother-in-law Irene, six premature babies, all of his siblings: Ken on April 26, 1945, at Cham Germany 12 days before the end of WWII, brother Dutch, sisters Barbara Lingle (Bob), Denison, Rosanne Alcola (Bill) Denver, Gretchen Hamlett, Delta CO, and Mary Bohnker (Norm), Wheat Ridge CO.
Surviving are his wife of 55 years, Judy, and their seven children: Mark of Ankeny, Brett (Beth) of Lincoln, Ryan (Amy) of Harlan, Brock (Dawn) of Ankeny, Jonah of Lincoln, Anna Rice (Cody) of Ankeny, and Meghan Brodersen of Minneapolis; 15 grandchildren: Nicholas, Victoria, Britta, Erica (Mark), Katherine (Brett), Sarah, Erik (Ryan), Thomas, Elizabeth (Brock), Gretchen, Clark, Lorelei, Thora (Jonah), Mauren, Emrik (Anna); 2 great-granddaughters: Valeriana (Erica) and Harper (Nick); one step-granddaughter: Devin (Brett); sisters-in-law: Darlene Reis of Denison; Patricia Getty of Alphretta GA, Corrine (Rick) Bogart of Omaha; brothers-in-law: Jerry (Carol) Swanson of Denison and Gail (Dianne) Swanson of Davenport; and 49 nieces and nephews.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Richard W. "Rick" Brodersen, please visit our flower store.