5/6/2011
Charles Carl Shivvers passed away peacefully Friday, May 6, 2011, with his family
at his bedside, at the Care Initiatives Nursing Home in Corydon, Iowa. Funeral services
will be held on Wednesday, May 11 at 1:30 p.m. at the Randolph Funeral Home in Corydon.
Visitation will be held Tuesday, May 10, 5 to 7 p.m. at the funeral home. Interment
will be in the Corydon cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to the
Charles C. Shivvers Memorial Bandstand Bench.
Charles was born February 5, 1918,
in Knoxville, Iowa to Charles and Lydia (Langebartels) Shivvers. He was a graduate
of Knoxville High School and then attended Iowa State University prior to commencing
his first career as a farmer a few miles from Pleasantville, Iowa.
In March of 1944
he was united in marriage with Anita Snider. Four children were born of this union.
After contracting Alzheimer's in his later years, Charles was lovingly cared for
at home by his wife Anita for several years.
He was an "entrepreneur's entrepreneur",
serially trying his hand at multiple endeavors while maintaining his lifelong love
of farming; these endeavors ranged from raising mink, bobwhite quail, ring neck
pheasants, and turkeys to running a restaurant in Des Moines, to having a "pick
your own" strawberry patch in Ankeny, to inventing the well known Shivvers Circulator
and starting Shivvers Manufacturing of Corydon, Iowa.
A long time coffee aficionado,
true to form as an entrepreneur he also developed and promoted Shivvers Coffee,
a gourmet coffee years before the coffee culture took hold in the USA. His lasting
entrepreneurial achievement was Shivvers Manufacturing, a well known manufacturer
of grain dryers and of zero turning radius lawnmowers based in Corydon, Iowa. One
of Charles' favorite sayings was "only a damn fool never changes his mind".
Survivors
include his wife, Anita of Corydon; daughter, Donna (Don) Otto of Knoxville; sons,
Carl (Laura) of Chariton, Steve of Prole and Doug (Joy) of Corydon; grandchildren,
C.C. Shivvers of Chariton, Ann (Brian) Van Den Top, of Chariton, Tracy (Marques)
DeGrandis of Dunlap, Illinois, Stacy (Jason) Heisler of North Liberty, Isaac Shivvers
of Boston, MA, Elizabeth Shivvers of Hong Kong, and Ryan Shivvers of Corydon; great-grandchildren include Nina and Ella DeGrandis of Dunlap Illinois, and Shelby Heisler of North
Liberty, Charles Shivvers of Ames, Dustin Shivvers of Chariton, and Justin and Andrew
Van Den Top of Chariton.
Charles was preceded in death by his mother and father
and brothers, Owen, Mark, and Gerald and his sister, Elnora Dimm.
Published in Des
Moines Register on May 10, 2011