SOUTH SIOUX CITY -- Clifford R. Dodge, 67, of South Sioux City died Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009, at a local hospital, surrounded by his family, after suffering a massive heart attack on Wednesday afternoon.
Services will be 2 p.m. Tuesday at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel Visitation will be noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home. Online condolences may be sent to meyerbroschapels.com.
The son of missionary parents, Cliff was born on Nov. 12, 1942, in Hartford, Conn., while his parents, Bishop Ralph E. and Eunice E. (Davis) Dodge, were home from Africa on furlough. The third of four children, Cliff attended Umtali Boys High School in Mutare, Zimbabwe, and graduated from Broad Ripple High School in Indianapolis, Ind. He attended Taylor University in Upland, Ind., and enlisted in the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army in 1961. He served for three years as a paratrooper, stationed mainly at Fort Campbell, Ky.
After an honorable discharge from the military, Cliff worked for General Motors in Youngstown, Ohio, where he resided with his first wife and children, Cathy Peterson of Round Rock, Texas, Kim Simons of Poland, Ohio, and Shawn Dodge of Pataskala, Ohio.
In 1976, Cliff started a business extracting oil from shale in Oklahoma. Later, he owned a cable business in Round Rock, Texas. While traveling with his cable company, he met and fell in love with his wife, Sandie, who he always called his most precious commodity. They met on April 17, 1987, Good Friday, and they have always given God credit for their meeting. God has played a prominent role in their lives. They married one year later on April 17, 1988, and resided in Sioux City with their daughters, Angela Sutherland of Nixa, Mo., and Tiffany Federspiel of Okoboji, Iowa. After moving to Sioux City, Cliff was an early advocate and salesman for cellular phones. For the past 11 years, he worked for the U.S. Postal Service as a mail carrier, a job he was totally dedicated to and truly loved.
Cliff was a born salesman starting with selling newspapers outside Ebbets Field, home of the Dodgers in Brooklyn, N.Y. After attending Dodgers' games with his family, he became a fervent Dodger fan for life. In addition to loving to spend his free time with his family and friends, he enjoyed having summer pool parties, camping trips and tubing the Niobrara River with friends, activities on the lake at Okoboji, traveling to Las Vegas, and spending time in Missouri visiting his grandchildren. Cliff had such an outgoing personality and to know him was to love him.
Survivors include his wife, Sandie; his five children; one brother, Dr. Edward Dodge of San Antonio, Texas; two sisters, Lois Dodge Stewart of Fernandina Beach, Fla., and Peg Dodge Miller of Cottonwood, Ariz.; grandchildren; nieces, nephews; and many great friends.
He was preceded in death by his parents, his father, Bishop Ralph E. Dodge in 2008 at the age of 101, and his mother, Eunice Davis Dodge in 1982.
A memorial will be established in Cliff's name.