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Robert “Bob” Medd has experienced enormous change over his 100 years on this earth.

He was born into a farming family in 1923 and grew up on two different farms in Riceland Township, near Hollandale.

His family managed to come through the Great Depression in pretty good shape, with plenty of food to eat and more than enough fuel for farming. He learned the value of hard work and frugal living, which he carried with him for the rest of his life.

Medd attended a one-room schoolhouse (District 88) through eighth grade. It was only a half-mile west of the family farm in Riceland Township. The original 1869 building was made of logs, but in 1881 was rebuilt and doubled in size to 20-feet-by-32-feet. He thrived in that environment, listening in on what the older kids were learning.

He went on to excel in high school, made the list of Who’s Who and served as an officer in the student government.

When Medd entered high school, he made a new best friend. The two hadn’t met before, because Delwin Roorda had attended the Hollandale school three miles away. It was this friendship that would have an eternal impact on Medd’s life.

Roorda was a church-goer and invited Medd to join him, which he did. It was in that Hollandale church youth group where Medd first met his eventual-wife, Louise, and they began dating.

Many of Medd’s friends headed straight into the conflict of World War II, but he was given a deferment to help his dad on the farm. Roorda became a B-24 pilot, based out of southern England. He wrote often to Medd through pilot training and then from England. In February of 1944, he wrote, “There’s a good chance of my not coming back. If so, I want you to know you’ve been the best pal I’ve ever had. If I’m killed, don’t mourn over me. I’m ready to go when God wants me, and I’ll go to meet my brother (Ade) in heaven. Promise me you’ll meet me there.” Those words became prophetic when his plane never made it back from a mission in 1945. Medd did give his life to Jesus and never looked back.

In 1945, Medd married Louise, and together they purchased one of the family farms from his father, Wilbur. It remained their home for the next 70 years.

As the world rapidly advanced, Medd didn’t just watch it go by, he participated in the change. Sometimes accused of being a daydreamer, he was always thinking of better ways to do normal tasks. He liked to misquote an ancient proverb by changing it from “necessity is the mother of invention” to “laziness is the mother of invention.” He became proficient at welding and soon his farm was littered with various contraptions, many of which actually worked.

From the world’s perspective, Medd’s biggest accomplishment was a patent that got the attention of International Harvester Co. It was for an improved corn chopper he had developed, which was published in Successful Farming magazine in 1962. The company saw the article and came to his farm to see it firsthand. They liked it enough to purchase the rights to his patent, and even offered him work if he would move to Chicago. After serious consideration, he chose to continue the life he had always known and loved as a farmer.

If you ask Medd what his greatest accomplishment was, you may get a different answer. He will likely say it is the legacy of family. Married for 70 years, he and his wife had four children, 12 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren.

Being a man of sincere faith, he agrees with the Psalmist, “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.”

Over the years, he has made a powerful impact on his family and his world, both with words and deeds. It has been a life well lived.

If you ask Medd how he managed to live to be 100, he will point to his faith in God, his wife’s great cooking, a total abstinence from alcohol and cigarettes and a life of working in the fresh outdoors.

His good health helped him survive two bouts with COVID-19. His short-term memory is surely fading, but he continues to light up a room with surprising wit and humor.

For anyone interested in celebrating Bob’s 100th birthday, the family will be hosting an open house on from 2 to 4 p.m. Dec. 16 at Oakwood Care Center, 400 US-18, Clear Lake, IA 50428.