Representative Walter R. Hagen View All Years

WALTER R. HAGEN

Mr. Speaker: Your committee, appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character, and public service of the late Honorable Walter R. Hagen begs to submit the following Memorial:

Walter R. Hagen was born February 8, 1915, at the Paint Creek Township, rural Waterville, Iowa, farm of his parents Albert G. and Karen M. (Leyse) Hagen. He graduated from Waterville Consolidated High School in 1932, and from the Iowa State College Herdsman Class in Ames in 1938. On July 28, 1946, he married Jean Raymond.

Agriculture was Walter’s life’s work. He operated “Springvale”, the farm that had been in his family since 1899, where he raised a dairy herd, hogs, and beef cattle. He was in the first Iowa Master Pork Producer class in 1942 and was named an Iowa Master Farmer in 1963. Walter was a lifelong promoter of soil conservation serving as a district commissioner from 1958 to 1970 and as a state Soil Conservation Committee member from 1973 to 1985. He was an Iowa Master Gardener and an Iowa Master Forester and hosted Conservation Education Days for Allamakee County sixth graders at the pond on his farm for over 25 years. He also grew and sold Christmas trees and spearheaded the effort to plant living snow fences in Allamakee County.

Among his many awards were the Conservation District Distinguished Service Award, the Iowa Owner-Operator Soil Conservation Award, the Iowa State Extension Service Award, and many others in community and agricultural service. He was honored to be a member of the first “People to People” tour, sponsored by Wallace’s Farmer, which went to Russia in 1959 to share ideas about agriculture.

During his life he was a Boy Scout, a Mason, and an active member of the First Presbyterian Church in Waukon where he served as an elder and a deacon. A talented singer, he was a member of the Iowa State College Men’s Glee Club, church choir, barbershoppers, and sang at countless community musicals, events, funerals, and weddings.

Walter Hagen wrote and sponsored the bill that made the oak Iowa’s state tree.

A Republican, Mr. Hagen was a member of the Fifty-ninth, Sixtieth, and Sixtieth Extra General Assemblies.

Walter R. Hagen passed away August 7, 2005, at the age of 90.

Now Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Eighty-first General Assembly of Iowa, That in the passing of the Honorable Walter R. Hagen, the State has lost an honored citizen and a faithful and useful public servant, and the House by this Resolution would express its appreciation of his service.

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of this Resolution be spread upon the Journal of the House, and that the Chief Clerk be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.

CHUCK GIPP

ROGER THOMAS

DAVID LALK

Committee