Emmett Michael Ahart

Emmett Michael Ahart was born October 13, 1934, the son of Joseph and Anna Judge Ahart. He died at his home near Dow City, Saturday, November 10, 2012, at the age of seventy-eight.
Mike grew up on the family farm, graduating from the Dow City High School with the class of 1952. He continued his education at St. Johns University in Collegeville, Minnesota, and Creighton University Medical School, graduating there in 1961 with his Medical Doctors Degree. He began his post Doctoral work at Mercy Hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He served his country in the United States Air Force at Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina before moving to Washington, Iowa, where he started his own medical practice and worked there from 1965 to 1979. In 1980, the family moved back to the home farm south of Dow City.
October 27, 1962, Mike was united in marriage to Ruth Manternach at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Monticello, Iowa. The couple was blessed with the birth of six children. In his leisure time, he enjoyed golf, playing Bridge, watching Jeopardy, Iowa Public Broadcasting, College Sports, and reading historical and nonfiction books. Mike enjoyed vegetable gardening and making furniture for his girls as well as building things around the house. He was an accomplished Ping Pong player. He enjoyed instructing those around him, especially his children and grandchildren. He was a trusted community servant in the communities he lived in. He was the parish president in Washington, Iowa, and school board president and bank trustee while living in Dow City. Mike was a member of St. Mary Catholic Church in Dow City.
Mike was preceded in death by his parents; three brothers: Joseph, Jr. and his wife, Dorothy; James and his wife, Hazel; and Gregory. Survivors include his wife, Ruth of Dow City; two sons: Stephen and his wife, Kimberly of Denison; Thomas and his wife, Kira of Des Moines; four daughters: Theresa Rubulcaba and her husband, Frank of Grand Junction, Colorado; Katherine Conrad and her husband, Paul of Albany, Minnesota; Nancy Ryan and her husband, James of Rockford, Illinois; and Susan Miner and her husband, Tod of Leavenworth, Kansas; ten grandchildren; five step-grandchildren; three brothers: Thomas Ahart of Kansas City, Kansas; Vincent Ahart and his wife, Phyllis of Coon Rapids, Minnesota; Richard Ahart and his wife, Bettie of Alexandria, Virginia; two sisters: Mary Iden of Columbia Heights, Minnesota; Joan Logue and her husband, Robert Sr. of Hingham, Massachusetts; and one sister-in-law, Rita T. Ahart of Vienna, Virginia.