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Obituary: Dale Anders

September 25, 1942~May 11, 2022

Dale F. Anders, 79, of Forestville, WI, passed away on May 11, 2022, after battling a rare, aggressive form of prostate cancer. Dale passed away, per his wishes, in the house he helped build, on the land he loved, surrounded by his family.

Dale, the youngest of four, was born on September 25, 1942, in the Township of Rhine in Sheboygan County, to Frank and Marie (Zorn) Anders. Dale attended Lima Center, a two room country school house in the Sheboygan Falls area, from grades 1st-8th grade and graduated from Sheboygan Falls High School in 1960. After working for a year to pay for college, he attended UW-Oshkosh to study chemistry where he won the Award of Merit from the American Chemical Society for outstanding senior.

On September 11, 1965, Dale and Margie Ann Gilboy were married in Plymouth, Wisconsin at the First Congregational United Church of Christ. Shortly after, the newlyweds moved to Fargo, North Dakota, where Dale accepted a fellowship from NASA to attend graduate school at NDSU, where he earned a Masters Degree in Organic Chemistry and Organic Coatings. While living in North Dakota, Dale and Margie welcomed two daughters, Robin and Rhonda.

Dale began his professional career in chemistry, at DeSoto Chemical Company in Des Plaines, IL where he formulated paints and coatings and authored many patents with the company. While working at DeSoto, Dale and Margie continued to grow their family with two more daughters, Elizabeth “Betsy” and Sarah. They built a home in Fox River Grove, Illinois where they made many lifelong friends and Dale also became active in local politics.
In 1979, Dale and Margie purchased a dairy farm, they named Kewa-Door Farms, located on the county line in Kewaunee and Door Counties, outside Forestville, WI. After nearly 20 years of farming, the herd was sold and much of Kewa-Door Farms was entered in the CRP, a land conservation program. Dale and Margie, along with family, planted over 250,000 trees on over 260 acres of land in both counties. Dale was incredibly proud of this accomplishment.

Dale spent much of his retirement years working on numerous projects. He cultivated a large, organic garden, grew an enormous patch of raspberries and several varieties of grapes. Dale put his chemistry knowledge to use when he started making wine, as well as kombucha and kefir. Never idle for long, Dale enjoyed walking, running and biking on the country roads around his farm and on the Ahnapee Trail. In 1999, he helped design and build a house for his mother-in-law to be built on their property, as well as, installed an outdoor, woodburning boiler system for his farm house.

Dale is survived by his wife, Margie of 57 years and their four daughters, Robin Anders (David) Klebanow, Wyoming, OH and their children Emma and Sophie Harrison and Jarred Klebanow; Rhonda Anders (Dr. Bryan) Sander, Oconomowoc, WI and their children Molly and Mason; Elizabeth Anders and her fur babies, Butter and Puddy, Verona, WI; and Sarah Anders (Brian) Slattery, DePere, WI and their children Ireland and Anders. Dale is also survive by sisters Caroline Anders, Aurora, CO and Ann (Don) Chance, Parachute, CO, as well as several nieces and nephews.

Dale is preceded in death by his parents, Frank and Marie Anders, in-laws, Francis and Helen Gilboy and one brother, Ronnie and sister-in-laws, Minnie and Vicky.

The family would like to extend enormous gratitude to close family friends, Brad, Janice, Delores, Kathy, Delton and nephew, David. As well as, heartfelt thanks to all the accommodating nursing and caregiving staff at Compassus Hospice and Ascension Home Health.

A family memorial service for Dale will be held later this summer. The family has requested that remembrances be made in the form of contributions to either Help of Door County Inc, Safe Harbor of Sheboygan County or Planned Parenthood.