Services will be held Tuesday, June 20, at St Joseph Catholic Church in Jefferson for Patrick Fields, 46, of Jefferson.
Patrick Duane Fields was born June 26, 1970 in Jefferson. He was one of four children born to Jerry and Mary Jane (Walter) Fields.
Pat grew up on the family farm near Paton. He worked diligently in all of the farming jobs, including riding beans, detasseling corn, and cleaning hog crates with his siblings. While most of Pat’s time was spent on the farm, he also played high school baseball with the Paton-Churdan Rockets. Pat graduated from Paton-Churdan High School in 1989 and completed his degree in ag studies at Iowa State University in 1993.
Pat and Michelle started dating in July of 1999 after he beat her in a game of ping pong. They were married in Nevada, IA, on Aug. 11, 2001. Kaitlin Louise was born on May 2, 2004 and Allison Faith on November 13, 2006. They lived west of Paton until 2013 when they moved to the farm homestead south of Paton.
Pat was a farmer to the core, proud of having a traditional family farm with crops and livestock. He loved his cows, pigs, goats and chickens, even though he frequently used colorful language when working with them. Having kids come over to feed ear corn to the cows, put a chicken to sleep or throw eggs at the pigs was as much fun for him as the kids.
He loved his community and would drop what he was doing at a moment’s notice to lend a helping hand or share a piece of equipment. He gave countless rides to kids in the combine or semi, for his entertainment and theirs. He loved to give high school kids the nastiest jobs on the farm to motivate them to pursue higher education.
Pat loved being busy. Besides running a grain and livestock operation, he was on the Greene County Cattlemen board serving as president until his death. He was a member and former chief of the Paton volunteer fire department and was also a co-leader of the Junction Food Producers 4-H group.
He loved his family. Pat was not one to show a lot of affection, but the fact that he would stop working to share a meal with his folks, go to a game or a school program for his girls or a movie with Michelle was his way of expressing it. His favorite times were when the family worked together building fence, chasing cows or all snuggled together on the couch watching “The Amazing Dr. Pol” and “North Woods Law”.
Pat Fields died tragically on June 6, 2017 at the age of 46 years. Survivors include his wife Michelle Fields and two daughters, Kaitlin and Allison, all of Paton; parents Mary Jane and Jerry Fields of Jefferson; brothers John (Andrea) Fields of Plain, WI and Bill (Christy) Fields of Maquoketa; sister Cari (Tony) Schaffer of Lancaster, WI; parents-in-law Frits and Martha Lantermans of Marion; sister-in-law April Lantermans (Natalie Padilla-Gillett)of Lincoln, NE; brothers-in-law Sheldon (Rochelle) Lantermans of Tabernash, CO and Carl (Michelle) Lantermans and Galen (Jill) Lantermans of Marion; and other relatives and friends.
College was very important to Pat. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the college fund for Pat’s daughters. A fund has been established at Community State Bank in Paton.
Services by Slininger-Schroeder Funeral Home of Jefferson, 515-386-2171.
