JULY 29, 1922 – SEPTEMBER 20, 2021
Howard Russell Decker was born July 29, 1922 to Isaac Decker and Susie (Ratzlaff) Decker. Born at home on a farm by Roxbury, Kansas. He had 4 brothers and 5 sisters; he was the youngest. He had to quit school after the 9th grade to work on the family farm. His fondest memory of school is having a pony that he rode to school every day, after arriving at the school he would turn the pony loose and he would run back home, then late afternoon somebody at home would turn the pony loose and he would run to school and then they would head for home.
In 1940 Howard met Frances Kerbs in Durham, Kansas, they dated for two years. They got married Dec. 31, 1942 in Marian, Kansas. They lived on rented farms. They both usually had day jobs besides farming. After putting in 8 hours on those jobs they then would come home, do their farming, and feed their livestock. They shared their lives together for 78 plus years. Howard read about the Denver Stock Show in a newspaper. In Jan. 1954, he caught a bus in Abilene and came out to Denver. While here, he fell in love with the mountains. So, in 1955 he moved his family, Frances, daughters Judy and Pam, one horse and one dog to Florissant, Co. to become a rancher. He ranched in Florissant, Eagle and New Castle. In 1960 the family moved to Longmont, where he became a sand and gravel truck driver. In 1961 they bought a house and 11 acres in Berthoud. In 1984, he retired, not long after that, they moved to Emporia, Kansas, then to Tucson Arizona, and then back to Red Feathers Lakes, then to Fort Collins. There he was raising Brahama cattle, and his hobby of miniature horses. On July 25, 2019, they moved to the Good Samaritan in Loveland, after Frances fell and broke her hip.
Howard hobbies were fishing, camping and horses, cattle and dogs. In his lifetime there was only a very short time that he didn’t have a horse.
When the Covid-19 struck, he told us that it reminds him when World War II was ending in 1945. The grocery stores were bare, he was sure glad that him and Mom had a garden, raised their own beef, and had a milk cow and chickens. Back then, you usually went to the grocery store once a month, mainly to buy 25 pounds of flour and 25 pounds of sugar and 5 pounds of coffee. It was also hard to find any clothing; usually the women would make clothes out of the flour sacks. Gasoline was rationed. At night, you could not have any outside lights on or you could not use the headlights on your cars. You had to cover your windows in the house so that you could not see any lights from the outside, because in case a Japanese bomber plane flew over, they would not see any lights.
Howard is survived by his wife, Frances; daughters, Judy Steward (husband Bob Steward) and Pam Geist (husband Steve Geist); 6 grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren, and 10 great great grandchildren.
He is proceeded in death by Makayla Lynn Belew and Alison Ann Nygren.
