Lawrence D. McCleery

Lawrence “Mac” Delwin McCleery, son of William C. and Dora A. Wolf, McCleery was born Feb. 22, 1912 in West Union, IA. He graduated from West Union H.S. in 1930 then majored in Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University and Aero Engineering at Curtis Wright Tech in Glendale, CA, graduating in 1935. His first job was with Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica, CA. Lawrence married Jean May Thompson of West Union, Jan. 9, 1941. They started their life of 70 years together in St. Charles, MO. After a few months they moved to Wyandanch, NY for 4 yrs., then to a farm west of Oelwein, IA for 24 yrs., which included 4 yrs. in St. Louis. Mac was preceded in death by his parents; an older sister, Jessie; an older brother, Harold; his wife, Jean and son, Leslie. Mac and Jean are survived by 3 sons; Crayton (Peggy) of New Haven, IN; Jerry (Cathy) of Kansas City, MO and Wayne (Diane) of Virginia Beach, VA. They also have 10 grandchildren, 20 great grandchildren and 3 great, great grandchildren. Mac was employed by 5 different aircraft companies during his life, mainly working on the wing design of military planes. Some of the other jobs he has had, almost all while working the farm west of Oelwein, IA, were as a mechanical engineer for several farm implement companies including John Deere, refrigeration, A/C and washing machine repair and finally retiring in 1977 after working as a signal engineer, car inspector and locomotive electrician for CGW Rwy. After selling the farm in 1970, Mac and Jean lived 7 years in Oelwein, 10 years in Harlingen, TX, 9 years in Morristown, TN, 3 years in Quincy, IL and 7 years in their last house in Kansas City, MO. They sold that house in 2006 and moved into an apartment, where Jean passed away in 2010 at age 91. Mac lived there for 3 ½ more years before moving to New Mark Care Center in Kansas City in March 2014. After living there for 1 ½ years he became very weak with pneumonia and spent his last nine days at St. Luke’s Hospice House in Kansas City from where he was taken into Heaven by his Lord and Savior on October 23, 2015 at the age of 103 years. Mac had always been very mechanically inclined and could build or fix almost anything. He built the first tractor he farmed with and made a 2 row corn picker for it as well as manure loaders, spreaders and wagons. He made a rotary engine, chicken gizzard cleaner, a clutch for dental power tools, car electric starter, wheel balancers, impact wrenches and water timers. He also, mowed, trimmed and watered 20 yards, year around in Harlingen in his 70s. He did most all the repair on anything they owned. He even repaired the roof of their last house at age 94. Mac attributed his long, healthy life to a good diet, no smoking, little alcohol, regular exercise and rest with moderation in everything. He always had a great garden with fruit trees and berries. Throughout their lives Mac and Jean were generous in helping others however they could. After their 4 boys left home they took in 3 Amish boys from Wisconsin and raised them until they graduated from Oelwein High School. They were also very active in the Morristown Boys Club. Lawrence attended Sunday school and church as a child but soon quit until becoming more active in church later in life. Although he was a member of the Methodist Church and later the First Christian Church, he never saw the need to dedicate his life to the Lord, until he was almost age 94. That is when he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior with the assurance of going to Heaven when his life was done on earth. As Lawrence knew, just being a good person does not get you into Heaven. We are thankful that God was gracious to him all these years and was always patiently waiting for him to make the decision to truly trust and follow Him.