Dick Schild Turns 100

The refreshments table with a Dick Schild cake
The refreshments table with a Dick Schild cake

The Mayflower Community (Grinnell IA) celebrated with Dick Schild and his family on December 14th, the day that Dick turned 100. He is Mayflower’s newest centenarian. (We have two other resident centenarians and two who will turn 100 in 2020.)

A reception was held for Dick in the Buckley Dining Room. Attending were Mayflower residents and members of Dick’s family. Dick lived in the same rural Belle Plaine home from his birth until he moved to The Mayflower Community at age 92, eight years ago. At the time he said, “I got off my tractor to come to Mayflower.”

At age five, Dick began helping his father on the farm herding cattle, hauling grain, and clearing snow and fallen trees. His 1935 Belle Plaine High School F.F.A. project was plowing a terrace with a team of horses. Later in 1965, Dick’s farm was honored with the “Des Moines Register and Tribune” State Soil Conservation Award for his implementation of ideas he called “farming on the detour.”

Dick lost his wife Mildred in 2013. Joining in the festivities were Dick’s son, Don (Jeananne) Schild, Grinnell and daughter Ann Reinhardt, Keystone, along with grandchildren Tricia (Buck), Chris, and Corey and great-granddaughter Tatum.

The other two centenarians at Mayflower are Coleen McGriff and Jennie Canfield.

— Bob Mann, Sales & Marketing Director