Dave Stoufer

Dave Stoufer

Washington

Dave Stoufer was born January 30, 1941 and left this life for the next on May 16, 2025, following several years of declining health.

Visitation with the family will be held Wednesday, May 21, 2025 from 5:00 until 7:00 pm and a celebration of life service will be Thursday, May 22, 2025 at 3:00 pm at Jones-Eden Funeral Home in Washington, Iowa. Memorials may be designated to the Iowa Lions Foundation or Washington Library Foundation. Online condolences may be sent for Dave’s family at www.jonesfh.com.

David Edward Stoufer was the son of Clarence Earl and Muriel (Strain) Stoufer, and was raised in Fort Dodge, Iowa where he graduated from Fort Dodge High School in 1959. He attended Buena Vista College and later did coursework at both Iowa Western Community College in Clarinda, Iowa and St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Kansas.

Dave married Marlene Dodds in Bettendorf, Iowa in 1964 and they had two children, Tamara Ann and David Todd. The couple later divorced.

Dave was a man of many facets, having worked in Illinois and Iowa as a minister, a shoe store manager, a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise manager, a radio disc jockey and in other careers as well.

He moved to Washington, Iowa in 1979 to work at KCII Radio where he met Rachel Nicola. They married in 1982. Following radio work in Mason City and Iowa City, Dave started a rubber stamp and marking products business, Rubber Stamps R Us. He expanded it to include trophies and engraved signs and the business was eventually purchased by Marcus Fedler.

Dave started a video and audio recording business which he named F Troop Studios in recognition of its location in a former Iowa National Guard cavalry unit’s office building. Following Dave’s retirement, Dave and his friend Mike Worley oversaw the transformation of the building into a museum dedicated to armed service memorabilia, primarily from southeast Iowa veterans. Thanks to a small group of volunteers, the nonprofit corporation now named Washington County Military Museum maintains the museum to the present time.

He returned to his earlier calling to the ministry, as minister to the Cotter Presbyterian and Salem Welsh Presbyterian churches from 2001-2006. In the 1990s through the early 2000s Dave also returned to his love of radio broadcasting, providing a single-station syndicated show titled ‘Simply Sunday’ for KCII’s Sunday mornings, playing an eclectic blend of music and adding local interviews and observations.

From his college days through the 1990s in Washington, Dave was active in community theater as an actor and director. Dave was announcer for numerous ‘Relay for Life’ ceremonies. He served on the boards of Lending Hands adult daycare and Art Domestique gallery.

He joined the Washington Lions Club in 1991 and his skills as a public speaker took him to leadership roles, first in the local club, then the Lions of Iowa and later at the international level. He was elected as an international director of Lions Clubs International for the 2006-2008 term, which resulted in two years of travel to over 35 states and eight foreign countries. Dave continued to respond to requests to speak to Lions gatherings for several years thereafter. He was awarded one of the organization’s highest honors, the Lions Ambassador of Goodwill award.

Not long after his college days Dave began another role which lasted for fifty years, acting as Santa Claus to thousands of children - in southeastern Iowa and wherever a small child would spot the white-bearded jolly old gentleman and know that he or she had seen the real thing. Dave had very strong feelings about performing as Santa: that the children and their feelings came first and that each little visitor would let him know how long to take and what needed to be said. His thoughts took shape as a book, ‘Are You the Real Santa?’ This book, self-published in 2013, led Dave to write and self-publish four more books, a series of novels based on the life of the fictional Reverend J.C. Wesley as he discovers the trials and satisfactions of life as a minister of the gospel.

In addition to all these activities, Dave was a dedicated hobbyist. He built model rockets; he raised tropical fish; he built ship models; he raced and announced races for remote control vehicles; and always, he “played with trains.” For many years he was active in the Washington Model Railroad Club. His greatest accomplishment was a layout of over 300 square feet in the basement of his home.

Dave loved a good steak, a good turn of phrase, the wind in his face when he rode his Goldwing trike; and most of all he loved Rachel.

Dave is survived by his wife Rachel Nicola; his daughter Tami and husband Jim; his son David and wife Carol; five grandchildren: Matthew Torok, Marlene (Torok) Dietz, Morgan Torok, Todd Cook, Troy Cook, and six great-grandchildren.