Dana Reicks �came like a spirit into our
lives, touching our hearts and our souls,
bringing us joy and leaving fond memories.�

Dana Reicks

November 27, 2008
JACKSON JUNCTION, IOWA

There is a sad fact to deal with when you have a long running tradition � eventually you start to lose some of the people who were part of the fun.

And so it is now, for all of us who have been involved for 29 years with the �Turkey of the Year� tradition at Turkey Valley High School here in northeast Iowa.

On September 18, Dana Reicks, who was our �Turkey� in 1989, died at his home in Jerico, just northwest of here, after a 21-month battle with colon cancer. He left his wife of four years, Karen Croatt Reicks, a native of New Hampton, and so many extended family members, friends and professional colleagues it�s nearly impossible to count them.

He was an outstanding high school kid, an Eagle Scout whose project was coming up with the house numbers and street names to give his hometown of Lawler its first real address system. He rode his bicycle on RAGBRAI, and hammed it up in musical productions. He went on to graduate from Loras College in Dubuque. He also spent two years in Bogota, Colombia, helping an order of nuns teach in a school devoted to children of the poor, and he took time to learn Spanish there.

He returned to the U.S. and earned his law degree at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2001. He then began commuting to work as a law clerk for State of Minnesota District Court Judge James Fabian in southeast Minnesota. He did �pro bono� legal work for poor people on the side. �Dana loved his job,� said his wife Karen. �He had a respect, reverence and passion for the law.�

His high school classmate and college roommate Dr. Scott Kuennen, a family practice physician in Kansas City, remembers Reicks as �a close friend to so many of us, he will be missed dearly. It was amazing to see about 40 to 50 members out of our high school class of 64 people make it home for the wake and funeral. It was a testament to the kind of guy Dana was.�

Not only that, but the last several months of Reicks� life, groups of those classmates and friends would show up every weekend to visit Dana and Karen. �Almost every weekend, there�d be five, 10 maybe even 20 of those friends stopping by,� Kuennen said. �Dana would get so �up� for those visits that he�d stay up �til midnight most of those nights. It might really wear him out later, but he loved doing that � we all did.� Karen Reicks said she thinks �those visits probably kept Dana going as long as he did.�

His parents Ardwin and Edna Reicks say losing the youngest of their five sons was an almost incomprehensible heartbreak. In the time since the funeral, Artie Reicks sat down and wrote a brief letter about Dana.

�He came like a spirit into our lives,� wrote the father, a farmer. �Dana touched our hearts and our souls, bringing us joy and leaving fond memories. Then as quick as he came, he left. We thank God for letting us be part of his life.�

Karen Reicks is continuing to commute to her work as a human resources supervisor at Nestle USA in Waverly. �Dana was just a great guy,� she said. �I miss him terribly.�

Meanwhile, there was news about a month later from two other Turkeys of the Year that was a good reminder that life keeps happening.

Leon Arens, the Turkey in 1993, and his wife Lynn Smith Arens, the Turkey in 1994, sent word of the birth of their second daughter, Ella Grace Arens, on October 23. Waiting excitedly for Ella Grace at home was her big sis Avery Arens. When Avery was born, the folks had sent out birth announcements saying, �It�s a Little Turkey!�

And now they have another one!

� Chuck Offenburger