William Marlow Hicks attended the elementary grades, marching into the school building each morning to the strident Souza March played on a big phonograph with a large horn which was located in the hallway. While in high school which was adjacent to the grade school, he was a track star as well as fullback on the football team. Summers were spent swimming in the gravel-pit of his mother’s property next to the fair grounds. In the winter William often hitched rides to town on the back runners of horse-drawn sleighs as farmers came to town to do their shopping.

William Marlow Hicks

Marlow (he uses his middle name) was attending Luther College, studying to be a history teacher, when the threat of war with military conscription was a foregone conclusion. He opted for the U.S. Navy rather than be drafted into the Army. He was sworn into the Navy 26 Sep 1940 at Des Moines, IA and attended boot-camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Chicago, IL. Marlow served aboard the U. S. S. Montgomery which was in port at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii when the infamous Japanese attack occurred 7 Dec 1941. Fortunately he escaped injury. After 6 years in the service he was honorably discharged 24 Nov 1946. Marlow served in the Pacific and Alaskan waters.

In 1944 while he was on survivors leave after his ship hit a mine, he renewed his acquaintance with Ophelia Marie Fischer whom he had met in Rochester, MN while in college. They were married 7 Jul 1945 at St. Paulus Church in San Francisco, CA by Rev. Jacobsen. After his discharge from military service they returned to Decorah and moved into his childhood home. They have 3 children: June, Mary and Carol Lorraine. The birth of his daughters June and Mary were in the same hospital, attended by the same Nurse Hoyme, as his birth event. Carol L. was born in Vallejo, CA. The family settled in Concord, CA where Marlow is commuting twenty miles daily to work. He'd rather mow lawn year round than shovel snow!

Marlow owned and operated Hicks Standard Service for 3 years in Decorah before leasing it so he could return to the Navy Department, but as a civilian. At the beginning of the Korean War he was employed at Mare Island Naval

Shipyard, Vallejo, as an Ordnance Engineer Technician in the Firecontrol of Guns, Torpedos and Ballistic Missiles of Surface Craft and Nuclear Submarines. He retired at age 56 after 32 years of service. His retirement dinner was attended by 75 fellow workers and friends.

After his retirement Marlow became a lapidary cutting and polishing rocks. He and his wife actively participate in field trips collecting rocks and fossils many times in remote areas necessitating back-packing.

Marlow and his wife have researched the family names of Hicks, Marlow, Fischer and Radam writing books on each family. They are currently working on the White, Logsdon, Headington, Urban and Wade families. Marlow helps with the research and Ophelia writes the books. The Marlow and Hicks books are in the Decorah Genealogy Library and Luther College Library.

Politically Marlow is a Republican. He is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Pearl Harbor Survivors Assn., Decorah Genealogy Assn., CCC Genealogy Soc., and the Contra Costa Mineral & Gem Soc. Marlow and Ophelia traveled extensively having visited 25 foreign countries as well as all 50 states.

As a young man he was a slender 5’8" tall, had brown hair and blue eyes. Now at age 76 he is still slender and blue-eyed but his hair has turned to white. He is physically very active in spite of the teflon artery in one leg and two total knee replacements.

Hinsenbrock, Vicky Lynn and Charles Robert McMaster

(Vicky L. Hinsenbrock)

Vicky Hinsenbrock and Charles R. McMaster

Vicky Hinsenbrock moved to Decorah, Iowa in 1985 when she was selected County supervisor of Farmers Home Administration for Winneshiek and Allamakee counties. Her parents, Richard and Beverly Hinsenbrock, live in Clermont, Fayette County.

Vicky and Charles McMaster were married 28 Sep 1991 at St. Benedict’s Church in Decorah. Vicky and Charles kept their own names.