- Date Of Birth: May 6, 1931
- Date Of Death: September 30, 2021
- State: Iowa
Don Marean, 90, died Thursday, September 30, 2021 surrounded by his family. Don was born on a farm in western Guthrie County on May 6, 1931. He was the fourth of nine children born to Elmer and Clarena Marean. He went to a one room country school for eight years and then graduated from Guthrie Center High School in 1949.
He started his passion for home building by working at Green Bay Lumber Company in 1950 and began building homes in Storm Lake, Iowa in 1951. It was during this time in Storm Lake that he drove to Iowa City every Sunday for a year to see Pauline (Polly), his future wife, while she was being treated for tuberculosis (TB). It was on her hospital bed that Don proposed to Polly. The story is often told in their love affair, at a time when treatment for TB was still being explored, that the doctor shook his crooked finger at Don when Polly was signing out against medical advice, and said, “you will be married to an invalid.” They both proved him wrong as the richness of a family life began in 1954, when Don married “the most beautiful woman in the world” and often said that she was “the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Don’s building career took off establishing Marean Construction in 1952 building a motel and restaurant in Guthrie Center, a sorority house in Columbia, Missouri, a 28-unit apartment in Iowa City, then on to many homes in the Des Moines area. He would say that he doesn’t build “houses”, he builds “homes.” In 1972 he built the home of his dreams with Polly on 15 acres with huge picture windows overlooking Browns Woods. The Blood good design was built for seven kids to live blithely. The home included paneling, woodwork, and cabinets from walnut trees on a family farm, and a barn for the horses in the same design as the house. The home was featured in “Today’s Home for Country Living” and later, another feature article was for the wood shop that Don built using the bowling lanes from Val Lanes after a flood. The “shop” is where Don spent hours hand-crafting pieces for the homes he was building and the many special pieces for his family including baby cribs for each first-born grandchild, reindeer for each family, matching jewelry boxes for all the granddaughters, and most notably, the walnut caskets for him and Polly. You can’t walk through his property and not help but notice the ingenuity that Don put into everything he did. The garden and cherry trees were also a passion of his, producing so much that it was enjoyed at every family gathering throughout the year.
Don was a very active member of the Home Builders Association (HBA), including president multiple years. Don was one of the original founders of the Home Show Expo and received the HBA Hall of Fame award in 2019 honoring a legacy of home building and contributions to the organization. His sons, Greg and Kevin joined Marean Construction after high school and continue the tradition building distinguished homes as Master Builders.
He was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church and his craftsmanship is there as well with the Easter baptismal font, the confessional, the oak railing on the altar, and the Sacred Heart Plus building. Don was a member of the Izaak Walton League where he enjoyed playing pitch every Tuesday and also enjoyed weekly dinners at the Elks Club. Don enjoyed his 1951 Studebaker, hunting, horses, homegrown popcorn and making cookies and caramels.
Family was everything to Don. He fathered six sons and two daughters and provided many blessings to each. Don’s love for Polly put everyone in awe and is a true testament to the sacrament of marriage, especially during the years of role reversal and caring for Polly with Alzheimer’s as long as he possibly could.
We thank the many health care providers who adored Don and kept him going and comfortable. We all know what a tough, albeit stubborn man he could be, but none of us would have it any other way. Through his many passions, and love for life as well for others, we will never forget the lessons we learned from him.
Don is survived by his wife of 67 years, Polly, and his seven children Pam (Dennis) Hall, Greg (Kris), Kevin (Cindy), Tim (Lynn), Joe (Lauralie), Monica (Bob) Gordon, and Pat (Janis), five granddaughters, 11 grandsons, 16 great-granddaughters and two great-grandsons. In addition, Don is survived by three sisters Irene (Dennis) Foshe, Marge (Galen) Kessler, Joyce Shaffer, and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his infant son, Michael Anthony, his parents, and five siblings.
