Bio: Ihlenfeldt, Stan (1957)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 
 

Surnames: Ihlenfeldt, Smith, Rusy, Wright  
 

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) June 20, 1957 
 

Ihlenfeldt, Stan (1957) 
 

The first portion of this is missing: The family moved to Kenosha, where his father was elected to the position of county superintendent of schools.  In 1934, Stanley Ihlenfeldt was graduated from Kenosha High School, and in 1936 from the Kenosha College of Commerce.  Well-built for basketball and football, Stan played center and guard on the Kenosha high basketball team, and tackle with the high school football eleven.  
 

In the fall of 1936, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, majoring in soils.  Weighing 233 pounds and standing 6 feet, 1 inch, he played left tackle two years with the varsity, but a back injury made it necessary for him to give up football.  At the end of his junior year his faculty advisor suggested (seeing he did not have too much of an agricultural background) that he work a year in some agricultural field.  In December, 1938, he was married to Opal Smith, of Richland Center. 
 

From June, 1939, to September, 1940, Stan was in charge of cow testing in the southern third of Wisconsin, returning to the University in the fall of 1940, from which he was graduated in June, 1941.  
 

In July, 1941, he entered the soil conservation service for Grant County, making his headquarters in Lancaster until February, 1942, leaving the work to move to a farm near Two Rivers that he had purchased. With the farm of 120 acres and 100 additional acres rented, Stan worked the farm, built up a fine herd of dairy cattle and raised beef cattle, pigs, horses and chickens.  The back injury showed up in 1948, and he was forced to give up farming. 
 

Ben Rusy, state supervisor of county agents, advised Stan to enter the extension field, and in January, 1949, he came to Neillsville as state agent at large.  In April the Clark County Board appropriated money and he was officially hired as Clark County club leader, which position he held until January 1, 1951, when he replaced Earl O. Wright as Clark County Agricultural Agent.  Mr. Wright returned to the University of Wisconsin and is now on the faculty of Iowa State University at Ames. 
 

Stan Ihlenfeldt has continued his studies, attending three summer sessions at Wisconsin University, carried two extension courses in field work, and is at present enrolled in the graduate school, (Missing lines again). 
 

Stan and Opal Ihlenfeldt have two sons, Lee Roy, 13, and Richard Stanley, 11.  Their first child, a daughter, Ruth Marie, died at the age of four months. They are members of the Zion Evangelical and Reformed Church of Neillsville.  Stan was a member of the local feed cooperative at Two Rivers, helped organize the Dairy Cooperative in Door, Kewaunee, brown, Manitowoc, Sheboygan and Calumet counties.  He is a member of the Red Cross Blood bank’s "Gallon Club."