Dr. Fred Elwood Marienau

Toward the end of his life, Dr. Fred Elwood Marienau, a man married 55 years to his bride Delsie, gave his grandson David Marienau some advice, “Always do what your wife tells you,” he said. His children would agree that Fred practiced this during his life. Fred, a man of outstanding achievements, also told David that he’d like to be remembered as a “great” grandfather. His grandchildren and children will also vouch for him in that category. Dr. Marienau died at his home in Dover, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008. His family and an appreciative community of friends, many of whom Dr. Marienau delivered into the world, will honor the life of this “great” grandfather and beloved family physician, at 11 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 20, at Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, 1900 West Pine in Sandpoint. Pastor Steve Nickodemus will officiate. Online memorials can be posted at www.coffeltfuneral.com. Fred was born in Sioux City, Iowa Dec. 11, 1929, the son of Fred John and Christina Seitz Marienau. He was the middle child with sisters, Marian and Eula. His first memory was being carried, along with his sister Marian, by two firefighters across Iowa’s Floyd River after a flash flood. Meanwhile, his parents and sister, Eula took a rowboat to escape the flood waters. They were taken to a hotel where they were refused shelter because they had the measles. Finally, they were permitted to stay and remained there for seven weeks. During that stay, Fred terrorized the staff by going up and down in the elevators, which were operated by a grumpy man. The river flooded again the next year, and the family wisely moved to higher ground. Another cherished memory of his youth involved almost daily family outings to Stone Park in Sioux City during the Depression when his father was out of work. While children played and their dad read the newspaper from cover to cover, Fred’s mom cooked pancakes over the fire pit. Fred and his sisters thought this was a great adventure and loved it because it was the most time their dad had spent with them. For years, the family enjoyed popcorn and apples for Sunday-night dinners to save money. Fred’s sister still eats popcorn and apples every Sunday night. The combination continued to be part of Fred’s life, although he eventually switched the apples to ice cream. The family moved to Akron, Iowa, where Fred grew up and graduated from Akron High School in 1948. He was an excellent student and athlete. The yearbook staff proclaimed that “Einstein visited Akron High” when describing Fred, who started each school day with a paper route via bicycle at the crack of dawn. As a baritone player, he went on to school for band practice before regular classes began. During noon hour, he’d run to the local lumber yard to relieve the men for lunch. Then, it was back to school for afternoon classes and sports practice---football, basketball, track, and baseball---depending on the season. He did this all on his bicycle, summer and winter, because the family had no car. Every summer during high school, Fred worked at the lumber yard, learning about lumber and construction. He would later put this knowledge to work when he and Delsie built their home in Sandpoint, acting as his own building contractor and driving an old truck of J. P. Munson’s to Spokane (leaving Sandpoint at 2 a.m.) to pick up supplies for the builders, the Ames brothers, and then working a full day at his office. Also, during high school while employed at the movie theater, Fred’s favorite part of the job was popping the popcorn, especially because he was allowed to eat all the popcorn he wanted while watching the movie and waiting on movie patrons. The owner more than once said he ate more popcorn than he sold. This love of popcorn from his youth carried forward to his children. Whenever Delsie had an evening function, leaving Fred to feed his children dinner, he would make popcorn and serve it with ice cream. To say the least, all of the children looked forward to dinners when Mom was away from home. The advent of microwave popcorn was greeted with great enthusiasm at the Marienau home. Fred’s father was a pharmacist; his mother, a nurse. So “Elwood,” as Fred was called by his mother, heard all the stories from the medical community. He always knew he was going to be a doctor. The doctors he knew in his youth were caring, giving, general-practice doctors after whom he later patterned his life, including accepting a pig for a pregnancy or firewood for fixing a fractured arm. When Fred went to college, his father took him by train to Iowa City and the University of Iowa, where he completed his pre-med and medical school. Those were the days of sending dirty clothes home to Mom, who washed them, ironed them, and sent them back. At the University of Iowa, Fred received his only grade lower than an A---a B in his physical education swimming class. That grade remained the one sore spot in his educational experience. He excelled in college partly because he could diagram any teacher’s lecture. His notes were a thing of beauty. When his brother-in-law, Larry Harman, was attending Dental school and living with Fred and Delsie, he used Fred’s notes for the subjects they shared. Thereafter, Larry became the “friend to know” for numerous medical and dental students. Fred met his future wife, Delsie Harman, on a blind date after two years of college. They were married Aug. 30, 1953, on what Fred said was the hottest day in Iowa history. He decided Delsie was “the one” after that first date but waited to ask her after three dates. From their first meeting on Sept 19, 1950, until Sept. 11, 2008, he talked to, walked with or wrote letters to his wife every day. Their bond influenced his life from that day forth. Fred graduated from University of Iowa in 1953 with a B.S. in Basic Sciences. He could have graduated earlier but waited so he and Delsie could graduate together. He earned his M.D. from the University of Iowa in 1955. After college, Fred went into the Navy for his internship (because it offered a small salary). The Navy sent Fred and Delsie to Bremerton, Wash., where its aircraft carriers were fitted with cantilevered decks. At the time, the base population increased incredibly with new sailors and their families, keeping doctors busy---so busy, in fact, that the doctors finally said if the train with the dependents didn’t leave soon, they’d personally push it out of town. Next, Fred was sent to Bethesda, near Washington, D.C., where he was assigned T.B. detection. He looked at chest X-rays for every man in the Navy. While there, Fred and Delsie went sight-seeing every Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday for six months, never even coming close to seeing everything on their list. Fred loved history. Fred’s Navy enlistment ended in Corpus Christi, Texas, where the Blue Angels were based. On one occasion, when the Blue Angels returned to Corpus Christi after a trip to the Orient very ill, Dr. Marienau isolated the virus, and a flu vaccine was created for this flu virus. Looking for a place to call home, Fred wrote to various states about places needing doctors. One of those was Idaho. Fred and a pregnant Delsie loaded up their infant son Fritz, the car and trailer and drove to Idaho, starting in Southern Idaho and heading north. After slipping and sliding up the old Lewiston grade on HWY 95, Delsie remembers being very relieved to drive across Lake Pend Oreille, even if it was on a temporary bridge, in one piece in 1958. Dr. Marienau joined Drs. Wendle, Hayden and Munson in their offices on First Avenue in downtown Sandpoint, which shared space with Bi-Rite Drugstore. Later, Bi-Rite (now Sharon’s Hallmark) was owned and operated by Don and Sharon Rench, who became lifelong friends of the Marienau’s. During his first year in Sandpoint, Dr. Marienau’s patient load was small, so he and Delsie tried practices elsewhere, in Fort Benton, Mont., and in Sac City, Iowa. Later, the couple decided that if they were going to struggle to set up a practice, it would be where they liked the doctors and where they wanted to raise their children. Within a year, they returned to Sandpoint permanently. Fred and Delsie (who had no relatives outside of Iowa) felt very lucky to have an extended medical family and great hospital family at Bonner General Hospital who made them feel welcome. The Marienaus became part of an informal group of medical doctors, dentists, veterinarians, lawyers, and morticians, known as B & B (Beer and Bluebacks). Many of the group had no extended family here, so they went to lunch weekly at Eng’s Resturant and met monthly with their wives at different homes, where numerous long-lasting friendships were fostered. Dr. Marienau moved into his own office on the Dover HWY in 1967 and remained there until his retirement in the early 1990s. He respected the nurses working with him at his office and the hospital. His office nurses included Nan Compton, Kay Berry and his wife, Delsie. Frankie Roberson, Undean Rainey and Jackie Turner also worked for Dr. Marienau as bookkeepers and office managers, keeping the office running smoothly and earning great respect from their boss. Dr. Marienau also worked the “Well Child” clinics for the State of Idaho in Sandpoint and Priest River for many years. He enjoyed this community outreach and viewed it was a great benefit to the area. Over his career, he also worked emergency rooms in Sandpoint, CDA, Lewiston, Sandpoint’s Urgent Care and drove to Clark Fork regularly to see patients. He loved serving on the State Board of Health and Welfare from 1979 to 1991 and considered Board members conscientious and their work vitally important to the State of Idaho. For more than 20 years, Fred also served as the State of Idaho representative to the American Academy of Family Physicians. He received numerous professional honors, including induction into Phi Eta Sigma Fraternity and Phi Beta Kappa in 1949 and 1954, respectively. Others include Alpha Omega Alpha during his junior year of medical school, a U.S. Naval Medical School certificate for photofluorographic interpretation in 1956, Federal Aviation Agency Certificate of Designation in 1961, and designation as an American Geriatrics Society Fellow in 1962. He was recognized by the American Board of Family Practice as a Diplomat for continuing his education in 1976. He continued his education through the American Academy of Family Physicians to become a specialist in Family Practice. Starting with their move to Montana and continuing in Sandpoint, Fred and Delsie opened up their home to numerous young men and women needing a place to live. Whether it was a young woman desiring to live closer to town to finish high school and work or if it was a foster child or a teenage boy just out of reform school in St. Anthony, all were welcome. In fact, at times throughout their marriage, Fred and Delsie have had their own six natural children and up to four or five extras in their home. One of the young men, Wally, who lived with the Marienaus in the late 1960s to early 1970s, was later adopted by Fred and Delsie at the ripe young age of “50.” Fred loved being a grandfather. He attended his grandchildren’s activities as often as possible. A common sight was Fred driving one of his pickup trucks with grandkids and their sheep in the truck bed headed to the fairgrounds or pulling a horse trailer to the horse shows for children or grandchildren. He also loved taking his children and grandchildren to Disneyland and considered the famous amusement park as the happiest place on Earth. Fred was a kid at heart, one who loved roller coasters--the bigger the better. He loved reading, classical music and chocolate. In fact, he could retain everything he read, no matter what was going on around him. He also worked diligently to keep up with current medical knowledge. Fred and Delsie shared a love of dahlias. The water-lily dahlia was his favorite. He started growing and exhibiting the showy flowers about the same time Delsie got her grandchildren involved with dahlias. Fred and Delsie met and befriended numerous people through the Spokane and Montana Dahlia Societies. After retirement, he traveled with Delsie and Jack and Elizabeth O’Brien to England, Ireland, France, Hawaii and throughout the United States. The family would like to express our deepest gratitude to Robin Changala and Claire Lewis (Dr. Hayden’s daughter) for the care they gave Dad during his final year. Without their help, we would not have been able to keep Dad at home. We are very grateful for their time, effort and care. Dr. Marienau is survived by his wife Delsie, at their Dover home; two sisters Marian (Jack) Ernest, Denver, Colo., and Eula (Philip) Stevenson of Duluth, Minn. He is also survived by his children Fred “Fritz” (Lorrie) Marienau, Priest River, Idaho; Eric Marienau, Boise; Rebecca (Edward) Hawkins, Sandpoint; Mathew Marienau, Heron, Mont.; Sarah (Todd) Mitchell, Sagle; Mary (Paul) Presser, Sandpoint; and Wally (Janice) Marienau, Sequim, Wash. Surviving grandchildren include Erica Currey, Rachel Marienau, Brooke Gaston, Holli Gaston, Elizabeth Hawkins, Christopher Hawkins, Nicholas Hawkins, Brandon Hawkins, Sophia Baker, Adrian Mitchell, Mamie Mitchell, Paul Marienau, Jarae Marienau, David Marienau, Laurel Presser, Tyler Presser, Angela Schwab, John Marienau, Nickie West and Debbie Howerton. Also, a few other grandchildren, by choice, and 10 great-grandchildren survive. Dr. Marienau was preceded in death by his parents, Fred John and Christina Seitz Marienau. The Dr. Fred Marienau Memorial Scholarship has been created at Wells Fargo Bank in Sandpoint. The family will be providing dahlia bouquets, so please consider dontating to the scholarship fund in lieu of flowers. Also, a reception at the VFW Hall on Pine and Division will follow Fred’s funeral on Saturday. Please plan to attend, as the family will be supplying “enough chocolate to make us all sick.”