April 3, 1919 - Feb. 28, 2006
GLENWOOD -- Arlene M. Chatfield, 86, of Glenwood died Tuesday at the Glenwood Retirement Village.
The service will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Glenwood United Parish. Burial will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Evergreen Cemetery in Fairfield, Iowa.
Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Hoplin Funeral Home in Glenwood and for one hour prior to the service at the church on Monday. Memorials are preferred to the Arlene Chatfield Memorial Fund or Flaming Pines Youth Camp.
She was born April 3, 1919, in Libertyville, Iowa, to John and Mary (Tweedy) McCleary. She graduated from high school in Libertyville in 1935. She earned a teaching certificate from Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa. She taught primary grades in Libertyville for two years.
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She married Robert Chatfield on June 3, 1939. She was a homemaker. They opened a nursing and convalescent home in Ottumwa, Iowa. She became a licensed practical nurse. They sold the home in 1956 and moved to Hubbard County. She attended Bemidji State Teacher's College and taught in Nimrod, Hubbar, and Menagha schools. She received a bachelor's degree in 1961 from Parson's College in Fairfield, Iowa. They moved to Glenwood in 1961. She taught first grade in Glenwood from 1962 to 1973, when she was named director of the reading program. She received a master's degree in teaching from Mankato State University in 1979. She retired from teaching in 1981. She organized the Glenwood Adult Literacy program, the Reading is Fundamental Project (RIF), Junior Great Books, the Right to Read Task Force and the MS Read-a-Thon.
She was named Pope County Teacher of the Year in 1968, received the Exemplary Teacher Reading Award and the Minnesota Literacy Council Project Award in 1975 and the International Reading Award in 1976. She was honored for her contribution to the Glenwood RIF Project in 2005.
Arlene was a member of the Kandiyohi Church of Christ.
She is survived by her children: Sheryl Paulson of Blaine, Karen Chatfield of Columbia Heights, Roberta (and Antelmo) Gonzalez of Scottsdale, Ariz., Nelson (and Serita) Chatfield of Grand Prairie, Texas; 10 grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren; and one sister: Doris Davis of Fairfield, Iowa.
She was preceded in death by her husband in 1995; one great-great-grandchild; and one sister.
