Maureen Pearl Mitzel
October 5, 1928 – March 9, 2019
Maureen Pearl (Feickert) Mitzel died peacefully on Saturday, March 9, 2019, in Sheridan, Wyoming. She was 90 years old.
Maureen was born on October 5, 1928 in Anamoose, North Dakota to Martha and Rudolph Feickert. She grew up on the family farm outside Martin, North Dakota. After completing 8th grade, a level of education considered adequate for a girl at the time, Maureen petitioned her parents for a year before moving in with her grandparents to attend high school in Harvey, North Dakota. Maureen had forged the way, and the following year when her younger sister finished 8th grade, she joined Maureen in Harvey to attend high school where they lived in a rented room. After high school, Maureen moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota to attend Union Commercial College. Upon completion of business college, she accepted a position as a stenographer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Bismarck, North Dakota.
While working in Bismarck, Maureen met and married Hilbert Mitzel in 1950. They moved to Riverdale, North Dakota where they had three children and worked for the Corps of Engineers on the Garrison Dam Project. In 1959, as part of the Ballistic Missile Program, they moved to Mountain Home, Idaho and, in subsequent years, to Sedalia, Missouri and Grand Forks, North Dakota. In 1964, they moved back to Riverdale to oversee operation of the Garrison Dam. Maureen enjoyed working and when there wasn’t a job for her, she sold Avon. In 1967, the family moved to Rohnert Park, California and, in 1968, to Kailua, Hawaii, still with the Corps of Engineers.
Maureen moved to Honolulu in 1971. She retired from the Corps of Engineers in 1993 and spent the first several years of her retirement in Honolulu before settling in Sheridan, Wyoming in 2003. She was all about sacrifice and hard work. These two attributes allowed her to enjoy her independence in retirement and focus on her favorite hobby of monitoring and maximizing her investments. She leaves a legacy of strength, courage, independence and tenacity.
Maureen is survived by her children, Candace Alberts (Jim) and Steven Mitzel (Mona), three grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, as well as her sister, Ione Pinks, and brothers, Ronald Feickert and Sheldon Feickert. She was preceded in death by her son, Paul Mitzel, grandson, Mark Mitzel, brother, Orville Feickert, her parents and husband, Hilbert (divorced).
Thank you to everyone at Sugarland Ridge for your love and care the past four years and to those at Westview Saddle Ridge these final weeks.
Services to be held at a later date. Online condolences may be written at www.championfh.com. Arrangements are under the direction of Champion Funeral Home.
