The Schroeder & Karstens families were neighbors, good friends, schoolmates, and more, over several generations with the Kusel family.
My mother, Dorothy (Ehrichs) Kusel knew the Schroeder family
quite well because they grew up on the Schroeder farm just across the tracks to the northeast of Aspinwall; mother was born and grew up in Aspinwall.
We custom farmed for these families and my dad, Amos Kusel, was a 1938 classmate and good friend of Alvan Hansen who married Elaine Schroeder.
Mother was good friends of Bernice and Elaine through various church and club activities.
My siblings & I grew up with and around the children of the Schroeder/Karsten/Hansen
families and went to school with them, and now that long tradition of comradery is coming to an end with all of the older
generations deceased and most of the younger generations having moved away after graduating from high school.
Dave Kusel
Dave & Tom Schroeder
Thomas Harold Schroeder
On Tuesday, November 30th, 2021, Thomas Harold Schroeder, loving husband, father of two children and two grandchildren passed away at the age of 74.
Tom was born on March 16th, 1947, in Manning, Iowa, to Harold and Bernice (Karstens) Schroeder. He graduated from Manning High School in 1965. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture Business from Iowa State in 1969 and had a long career in dairy production in many different places around the country. He was the proud parent of two children, Tommy and Tammy from his first marriage to Peggy Ann Lensing.
Tom was a simple man, but he loved to watch his sports. He had a passion for all his teams including the Iowa State Cyclones, of which Tom was given a scholarship to play football in his younger years. Tom could be counted on to have all the latest news on all the Denver professional teams, religiously watching the games and cheering for his teams - win or lose. His first date with his wife Kathy was to a Denver Broncos game. Tom also loved to support his kids and grandkids in their own sporting endeavors, always bragging about their accomplishments.
If you asked Tom what the most important thing to him was - he would always say his kids and his grandkids.
Tom was preceded in death by his parents, and his brother David. He leaves behind his wife of 18 years Katherine Jo Betts, his son Thomas Jacob Schroeder and his wife Sharon, his daughter Tamara Leigh Drozda and grandchildren Clifford "Eddie" Drozda, V, and Emma Joy Drozda, as well as several step-children and friends.
A small gathering of family and friends was held on Saturday, December 4th, 2021, in Evergreen, Colorado. An additional celebration of life will be planned for early spring in Manning, Iowa. Details to come later.
