Mark C. McLarnan

Mark C. McLarnan, 95, of Sioux City died Friday, July 16, 2004, at Indian Hills Nursing and Rehab Center following a brief illness.

Services will be 11 a.m. Thursday at Trinity Lutheran Church, with the Rev. Terry Templeton officiating. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, with the family present 6 to 8 p.m., at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel.

Mr. McLarnan was born Oct. 2, 1908, in rural Moville, Iowa, the son of Chet and Margaret (Longhorn) McLarnan. He graduated from Moville High School. He later received his bachelor of arts degree from Morningside College in Sioux City. He earned his master's degree from the University of South Dakota at Vermillion.

He married Dorothy Paulson on Dec. 24, 1933, in Sioux City. She died May 6, 1977, in Sioux City. He later married Ruth (Marks) Ketelsen on Jan. 1, 1987, in Sioux City.

He has had a long and successful career in athletics. He received North Central Conference recognition as an end in football while attending Morningside College. He was a successful coach in Iowa high schools located in Orange City, Jefferson, Red Oak, Clinton, Sioux City Central and Sioux City North.

In addition to coaching, he had been an outstanding athletic official in football, basketball and track, officiating games and meets at Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota high schools. He officiated in the North Central Collegiate Conference in football and basketball from 1946 to 1968, and in the Missouri Valley and Big Eight Conference for several years. He had been an approved official in football, basketball and track in three state athletic associations -- Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska. He was a member of the Missouri Valley Inter-Collegiate Association and Midwestern Inter-Collegiate Officials Association.

Other sports and official memberships included the Tri-State Officials Association in Sioux City and the Greater Siouxland Athletic Association. He served 19 years on the Drake Relays High School Jury after being selected as a high school referee of the relays in 1971.

He was the first athletic director elected to the Iowa High School Athletic Association board of control in 1967. He represented the high school athletic directors of the state of Iowa on these governing boards and acted as chairman in 1972.

In 1975, he received the Iowa High School Athletic Association Lyle T. Quinn Award. In 1974, he was inducted into the Iowa Track Coaches Hall of Fame; in 1976 into the Iowa Football Coaches Hall of Fame; in 1977 into the Greater Sioux City Athletic Association Hall of Fame and in 1988 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award in appreciation of outstanding service and unselfish devotion to Interscholastic Athletics by the National Federation Interscholastic Coaches Association.

Mr. McLarnan served on the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors beginning in November 1978. In 1980, he acted as chairman of the board. He was re-elected to a four-year term in November 1980.

He was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church, where he served two terms on the church council. He was a member of the Red Oak Lodge 162 A.F. & A.M. of Red Oak, Iowa, the Sioux City Consistory and the Abu Bekr Shrine Temple.

Survivors include his wife, Ruth; a son and his wife, Dr. Keith and Carolyn McLarnan of Hattiesburg, Miss.; a daughter and her husband, J. Kaye and C. Allan Byers of Monument, Colo.; two brothers, Paul McLarnan and his wife, Arlene of Phoenix, Ariz., and Howard Ross McLarnan of Moville, Iowa; three grandchildren and their spouses, Mark and Susie Byers, Paula and Chip Vollers and Rebecca and Jeff Cavarra; seven great-grandchildren, John, Jenna and Bobby Byers, Phoebe and Ethan Vollers and Cole and Alexis Cavarra; a stepson and his wife, Mark Ketelsen and Kathryn Hayley of Chicago, Ill.; a stepdaughter and her husband, Fran Ketelsen and Jim Falender of Midland, Mich.; three stepgrandchildren, Corinne Falender Blankenship and her husband, Monty, Loren Ketelsen and Leigh Ketelsen; and a great-stepgrandson, Sawyer Blankenship.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his first wife and a brother, Rex.

Pallbearers will be Keith McLarnan, C. Allan Byers, Mark Byers, Mark McLarnan and Mark Ketelsen. Honorary pallbearers will be Charles Avery, C.H. "Skip" Magoun, Gerald Curry, Gordon Ellis, Russ Kraai and Dwight Hauff.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial scholarship has been established in his name at Morningside College.