Robert E. Nichols

Robert E. Nichols, 77, of Norwalk, died Oct. 7, 2022, at his home. Services will be held Nov. 4 at Iowa Veterans Cemetery. Reverend James Morris will be officiating.

Memorials may be directed to East Union Dollars for Scholars.

Robert Earheart Nicholas was born Feb. 12, 1945, the oldest son of Cecil and Beth Wilmoth (Earheart) Nichols in Clarksville, Tennessee. He was born while his dad was deployed in Havannah, Cuba, during World War II for overwater navigation training in preparation for the atomic bomb missions on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Bob was four months old the first time he saw his dad.

Bob grew up in Arispe and graduated from East Union in 1963. He then attended Creston Junior College and started at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. On Dec. 24, 1966, he received his greetings from Uncle Sam and was drafted to the Army. He served with the First Air Cavalry in An Khe, Vietnam. In January 1969 he was honorably discharged and returned to Northwest Missouri State University, graduating in May 1970.

After graduation Bob moved to El Paso, Texas, but returned to Arispe in April 1973 and worked in his parents’ grain elevator and drove semi-trailer. He served three terms as mayor of Arispe from 1973-1979. In 1988 he accepted employment in the bulk mail center in Des Moines. He retired from the mail center in 2002.

Bob is survived by his mother Bess Wilmoth (Earheart) Nichols; brothers: John (Edna) of Shawnee, Oklahoma, Norman of DeWitt, Joe (Becca) of Snohomish, Washington, and Keith (Karen) of Perry; nieces, nephews and cousins.

He was proceeded in death by his father Cecil and sister-in-law Cathie.