Clifford Hoover

Clifford Dale Hoover was born at home at the family’s farm near Ayrshire, Iowa, to Raymond and Dorothy Hoover. He was the youngest of the Hoover children, having two older sisters and a brother. A baby brother, born prior to Cliff, was stillborn.

The family then moved to a farm near Marathon, Iowa when Cliff was approximately four years old. Cliff attended school at Marathon Consolidated, graduating from high school in 1960. He loved participating in sports, especially football, and also enjoyed vocal music and drama.

Cliff and Bonnie Byers met during high school at a Friday night teen dance at what then functioned as Spencer’s YMCA. They were married on May 9, 1961 and then moved to Clear Lake, Iowa. Cliff loved sales work, and began traveling for a pharmaceutical company. When his territory was expanded, Cliff, Bonnie, and newborn daughter, Lori, moved to Storm Lake, Iowa, and later on to Sioux City, Iowa with their expanded family including son, Jeff and infant daughter, Amy.

In 1968 Cliff had an opportunity to start farming, his lifetime ambition, so the family again made a move, this time back to the Marathon community. When he had the opportunity to rent a larger farm with livestock facilities near Ruthven, the family again moved in 1969. A mid-winter, early morning house fire destroyed their farm home, but the family escaped with no injuries. Needing a home for both family and livestock, they moved to their current farm operation site near Greenville, Iowa in 1970. Their youngest son, Alex was born in 1971.

Cliff started selling real estate in 1978, and in 1983 Cliff & Bonnie opened Hoover Real Estate Company, specializing in farm real estate sales throughout the Midwest. Cliff served as a State President of the Iowa Realtors Land Institute. He thoroughly enjoyed his real estate sales work until a serious stroke in 2006 caused his loss of speech.

Cliff’s passions in life included family, friends, hunting, fishing, farming, and the great outdoors. He was an avid USSA Snowmobile racer and was a podium finisher in the 1976 USSA World Series in St Paul, MN. He was a member of 1st Congregational Church, Evening Shade Lodge #312, and Abu-Bekr Shrine

He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Gordon, and his sister Jerry Lou Howe.

Left to cherish his memory are his wife Bonnie; his children, Lori Black (Jon), Jeff (Lisa), Amy Hart (Kevin) and Alex (Amy); 10 Grandchildren; 4 Great-Grandchildren; extended family members, and many friends.