Elwood Geiger

Elwood Edward Geiger was born August 10, 1925 to Edward and Mary Geiger, and grew up on a farm north of Jacksonville, Florida.   At the age of 18 he was drafted into Civilian Public Service and sent to Gatlinburg, Tennessee where he spent eleven months building trails and driving supply and dump trucks.  He was transferred to Lisbon, New Jersey to work at New Jersey State Colony, a training facility for young boys, where, given his farm experience, he was called upon to work in the dairy.  In 1946, Elwood was discharged to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) where he worked in the cattle and horse shipping program, making three trips to Poland, one to Bremen, Germany with horses to Czechoslovakia, and one to Volos, Greece.   Working with the American Friends Service Committee, Elwood joined a transport team to deliver building supplies to war-torn Poland.  In 1949, working again with the AFSC, he spent nine months in Gaza running the transport to get food, tents, and medical supplies to the then 270,000 refugees living there.  His sister also worked in Gaza as a nurse at a clinic serving the refugees, but sadly she died of meningitis in 1950, and that same year Elwood returned home to Jacksonville to work on the family farm.  

Elwood met his future wife, Marilyn, a bookkeeper at Macedonia Community in north Georgia, and they married in 1952.   Elwood and Marilyn moved to Jacksonville, built their home there, and actively managed the family farm to support his parents and provide them with a steady retirement income.  Unable to support them and his wife and daughter on timber sales alone, Elwood became a consulting forester, helping local landowners to manage their forest lands, and he fought to maintain fair property tax regulations, serving in this capacity up to his retirement. 

Elwood’s favorite hobbies included sailing, traveling, and reading.  He maintained an enviable memory well into advanced years.  In 2003 he moved with his wife and daughter to South Dakota, where he joined and volunteered with the Spearfish Kiwanis Club until his health began to decline.  He passed away on March 15, 2024 at the Rolling Hills Healthcare Center in Belle Fourche.  Survivors include his daughter, Amy and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.  He was preceded in death by his wife.

Memorials are preferred to the Spearfish Kiwanis Club or Stillwater Hospice of South Dakota.

No services will be held.  Arrangements are with Leverington Funeral Home of the Northern Hills in Belle Fourche.