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Kathleen Minnie Ives Dahl is safely Home. She took her last breaths surrounded by her husband and family in her home on Sunday night, the 27th of April, 2025. Though death is an enemy, as she approached the end of her battle with cancer, she was also at peace, knowing that she was securely held by a loving Father who would also continue to hold those many precious family members whom she was leaving behind.
Kathy was born in San Jose, Costa Rica, on the 18th of November, 1946, to Norton and Velma Ives. Her father was an agricultural engineer who was working for the U.S. government in Costa Rica and she had many fond memories of tamales, mangos and her Spanish speaking friends. When Kathy was six, they moved back to join her grandparents, Andrew and Dora Ives, on the family farm south of Rolfe, where Kathy spent the rest of her childhood, graduating from the Rolfe High School in 1965. She received a degree in early childhood development from Iowa State University in Ames, and while she was there, she met Gary Dahl, a handsome young farmer who became the love of her life. They were married on Nov. 28,1969, and were faithfully devoted to each other for 55½ years. Her last words were Gary’s name and he held her hand as she died.
Kathy and Gary made their home first in Omaha, Neb., and then, after joining Campus Crusade for Christ, in Nashville, Tenn. There they heard Francis Schaeffer speaking about the fact that to God, there are “No Little People, No Little Places” which impacted them greatly, encouraging them that God sees great significance in every faithful act. This brought them to dedicate their lives to raising children, farming and serving the Lord in whatever areas He brought to them, with whatever people he brought into their lives and hearts. After a few years in Denver, Colo., and Huxley, Gary and Kathy settled into Five Pines Farm, the original family homestead in Rolfe, dedicating the rest of their lives to farming the land that was originally settled by Kathy’s great-grandparents.
Kathy’s life was one of faithful, generous servanthood as they were given eight biological children and a son whom they adopted in 2014. Kathy was a wonderful home-maker and created an atmosphere of welcome, good hard work, creativity and learning. She faithfully dedicated years to home-educate all of her children and taught them many other things necessary for a good life, including how to tell the difference between a weed and a good plant and to finish your chores before you have a snack. The children that surrounded her whole life brought her great joy and she had a constant sense of contagious delight and curiosity. She had a deep love for good stories and spent thousands of hours reading aloud to children and adults alike.
She is survived by her nine children: Dawn (Peter) Merz, Heidi (James) Roland, Anna (Andy) Brown, Mercy (Ethan) Bradshaw, Betsy (Ed) Gross, Luke (Lorena) Dahl, Carolyn Dahl, John (Amy) Dahl and Theodore Dahl. She has precious grandchildren whom she constantly made to feel like the most important people in the world: Sophia (and Aaron Cuthrell); Maria, Peter and William Roland; Johannah, Ned, William, Adelaide, Matthias and Nathanael Merz; Anton and Cecil Bradshaw; Melissa, Kathleen, George and Lily Gross; Gary Robert Dahl; Elizabeth Brown; and also foster grandchildren and a step-great-granddaughter whom she welcomed to her heart with open arms until her dying day. She is also survived by her brother Gaius; her sisters: Sandra (Patrick) Tam, Mari Cantrell and Shelley (Bob) Bergen; her sister-in-law Terry Ives; brother-in-law Mark (Becky) Dahl; and sister-in-law Karen (Martin) Gundlach; as well as 29 nieces and nephews, and many great-nieces and nephews in whom she delighted.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Norton and Velma Ives; her brothers Brian, Joel and Conrad Ives; her brother-in-law Orville Cantrell; sister-in-law Joan Ives; parents-in-law, Christian and Lucy Dahl; and various other family members and friends with whom she was looking forward to spending eternity.
There is a beautiful quote at the end of Middlemarch by George Eliot that describes Kathy Dahl to those who knew her best:
“… she herself had no dreams of being praised above other women, feeling that there was always something better which she might have done, if she had only been better and known better… But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts, and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life…”
We are collecting memories of God’s faithfulness to and through Kathy Dahl, so that, in the future, we can continue to remind each other. Please write to us and send memories and memorials to: the Gary Dahl family, Five Pines Farm, 47657 290th Ave., Rolfe, IA, 50581 or to heidi@cafezanzibar.org.
