Final Salute

Marvin Van Gorp, 93 of Montezuma, passed away Wednesday afternoon, September 17, 2025 at the Brooklyn Community Estates. Funeral services will begin at 10:30 am on Tuesday, September 23, 2025 at the Holland-Coble Funeral Home in Montezuma. Burial with military honors by the Blakely-Stevens American Legion Post #169 and the United States Navy Funeral Honor Guard will be held in the Jackson Township Cemetery following the service. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service beginning at 9:30 am. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Montezuma American Legion or the Poweshiek County Historical Society in Montezuma. Holland-Coble Funeral Home of Montezuma is in charge of the arrangements.

Marvin Wayne Van Gorp, the son of Lloyd and Mary Balcerak Van Gorp was born on November 17, 1931 at home on the farm in Sugar Creek Township near Searsboro, Poweshiek County, Iowa. He graduated from Barnes City High School with the class of 1950. Marvin served in the Navy Seabees during the Korean War in 1951 and 1952. Basic training at Port Hueneme, San Francisco, CA. Naval Construction Battalion #7: Seabee training at the Navy base in Davisville, Rhode Island. Transferred to naval base Port Lyautey in French Morocco, then Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was honorably discharged from the naval base in Jacksonville, Florida in 1952.

Marvin was united in marriage to Mary Frances Facile on February 12, 1954 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Oskaloosa, Iowa. To this union 5 children were born: Wayne, Diane, Kathleen, Marveen and Marchelle. They lived in Montezuma and were owners of Van Gorp Plumbing & Heating from 1953 to 1966, and then Perry Implement, John Deere. In 1970, they moved the family to the farm north of town, which they owned and operated. Marvin and Mary celebrated 52 years of marriage in 2006, when Mary passed away. Marvin moved to town in 2009. Marvin was a long time member of the Montezuma Fire Department and a 72 year member of the Blakely Stevens American Legion Post 169.

Left to cherish his memory are his children: Wayne (Brenda) Van Gorp, Diane (Allen) Kitzmann, Marveen (Lyle) Behounek and Marchelle (Mike) Goodman; 11 grandchildren, Nick Hester, Lauren (Charlie) Elliott, Austin (Rachel) Hester, Steve Smith, Jennifer (Joel) VanderLeest, Andy (Tiffany) Smith, Kelsey Watts, Ben Arvidson, Andrea (Broc) Harms, Luke Goodman and Breck Goodman; and 18 great grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Frances in 2006; father, Lloyd in 2003; his mother, Mary in 1981, two brothers, Donald in 2000, Kenneth in 1952, his daughter, Kathleen in 2017 and a son-in-law, Harold Hester in 2002.
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