The Life of GLENN R TRATCHEL JR
Glenn R. Tratchel, Jr., 34, Des Moines policeman since July 1, 1959, died Friday in Iowa Methodist Hospital of a brain hemorrhage suffered while at work April 1.
Tratchel lost consciousness while working as a police dispatcher. His condition had improved and he was allowed to sit in a chair in his room and to have visitors.
However, he collapsed again Thursday and required more than five hours of surgery.
Since joining the police department, Tratchel had been on the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift, most of the time in the uniform patrol section.
About 13 months ago he was assigned to the service section, serving as information desk man, jailer, and for the last few months, as dispatcher.
He was a member of the police baseball and basketball teams and had been a member of a state softball championship team for two years before joining the department.
Born in Newton, he lived in the Des Moines area about 24 years. He attended North High School and had worked as a construction firm driver and as an assembly man in a farm machinery plant.
Tratchel was a hunting and fishing enthusiast and recently had taken up coin collecting.
He is survived by his wife, Pauline; four daugthers, Donna, 13, Debbie, 8, Diane, 5, and Doreen, 2; his mother, Mrs. Leona Meyer, Waterloo; his father, in Newton and sister, Mrs. Orval Coffman, Des Moines.
Services are being arranged at Hamilton''s Funeral Home.
Tratchel lost consciousness while working as a police dispatcher. His condition had improved and he was allowed to sit in a chair in his room and to have visitors.
However, he collapsed again Thursday and required more than five hours of surgery.
Since joining the police department, Tratchel had been on the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift, most of the time in the uniform patrol section.
About 13 months ago he was assigned to the service section, serving as information desk man, jailer, and for the last few months, as dispatcher.
He was a member of the police baseball and basketball teams and had been a member of a state softball championship team for two years before joining the department.
Born in Newton, he lived in the Des Moines area about 24 years. He attended North High School and had worked as a construction firm driver and as an assembly man in a farm machinery plant.
Tratchel was a hunting and fishing enthusiast and recently had taken up coin collecting.
He is survived by his wife, Pauline; four daugthers, Donna, 13, Debbie, 8, Diane, 5, and Doreen, 2; his mother, Mrs. Leona Meyer, Waterloo; his father, in Newton and sister, Mrs. Orval Coffman, Des Moines.
Services are being arranged at Hamilton''s Funeral Home.