Cloy William Hirt, the son of Walter and Anna Goering Hirt, was born at the farm of his grandparents, George and Bertha Hirt, near Hartley in O’Brien County, Iowa, on June 10, 1924. Cloy passed away at the Hartley Community Memorial Health Center on April 6, 2022, at the age of 97 years and nine months.

At the age of 5, he moved with his family to the farm his parents had purchased on Highway 18 east of Hartley. He graduated from Hartley High School in 1941 and continued to farm with his father for several years. He was baptized and confirmed at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Hartley.

On...