Glenn Franklin Stuve
Glenn Franklin Stuve
Glenn Franklin Stuve of Humbird passed away March 29, 2026, at Mayo Hospital in Eau Claire, surrounded by many family members. On April 27, 1936, he was born on a hilltop farm in Humbird, WI, to Beatrice (Tubbs) and Martin Stuve, joining older siblings Constance and Ralph. In 1940, Martin died tragically in a sawmill accident, leaving Beatrice a bereft single mother at a time when no safety nets existed. One bleak Christmas, Connie, Ralph and Glenn each received only an orange. In 1942, Martin’s older brother, Manley, married Beatrice and became a loving stepfather to his niece and nephews. They lived on the family farm in Humbird where Manley eked out a living and evenings were spent listening to Chicago Cubs games on the radio.
At Lincoln High School in Alma Center, Glenn was a star athlete in baseball and basketball, setting a still-unbroken record of 53 points scored in a basketball game.
After a year at UW-Superior, Glenn followed in the footsteps of his older brother, Ralph, and joined Aviation Cadets to become a F-89 radar intercept officer, sitting behind the pilot to guide the fighter jet into proper position to engage enemy bombers. On Dec. 3, 1956, he was training in Harlingen, TX, when Ralph perished in the collision of two F-89 jets over Buffalo, MN. For the rest of his life, Glenn refused to wave at anyone about to get on an aircraft.
While home for Thanksgiving in 1957, he visited the Gile Insurance Agency in Merrillan, noticed a photo of Nelda Gile, and asked for her address. They went on a date at Christmas and then wrote letters until May when he proposed. Glenn and Nenn were together in person a total of 21 days when they married Dec. 27, 1958. After a brief honeymoon to Niagara Falls, they made their home on Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, SD. When Glenn wasn’t in the air, he was on the basketball court where he was named MVP of the 29th Air Command’s team. On May 1, 1960, Glenn and the rest of the 54th Fighter Interceptor Squadron spent 12 hours on high alert during the U2 incident. In December of that year, Glenn left the Air Force and enrolled at UW-River Falls where he played baseball, hitting a notable grand slam against UW-Eau Claire. Their son, Steven, was born in 1962. After scoring well on the Civil Service exam, Glenn became a cartographer for the Aeronautical Chart and Information Center, an Air Force agency in St. Louis, and they sent Glenn to Purdue University to become a geodesist. One week before he collected his MS in Civil Engineering in 1965, their daughter, Stephanie, was born and the family moved back to St. Louis. At ACIC, Glenn had Behind the Wall clearance, not even telling his wife details of his top-secret projects, which included the calculation of landing sites for the Apollo 11 moon mission. Despite a knack for the government work, his cover-to-cover reading of Hoard’s Dairyman never ceased and eventually the siren song of the farm became too much to ignore. On April 1, 1969, the family moved to a rural property east of Humbird, WI, which they christened Glennenn Farm. Some might say that starting a dairy herd from scratch is a fool’s errand, but Glenn was nothing if not stubborn, and certainly not one to shy away from hard work.
Though farming took most of his time, he felt strongly about civic duty and served on the town board, and church council and was a school board member from 1972-1981. After Glenn sold his cows in 1997, he drove heavy equipment at Fort McCoy for a number of years as he continued to grow certified organic corn, wheat and soybeans. Once he began Grandpa Glenn’s Organic Strawberries, customers came from far afield to pick their own. The couple traveled, including a cruise to Alaska and a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. A die-hard fan of the Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers, Glenn was ecstatic when his beloved Cubs finally won the World Series. In 2017, he was the first athlete inducted into the Lincoln High School Hall of Fame. Glenn held immense pride for his five granddaughters and attended many of their high school and college graduations. A man of abiding faith, Glenn attended church all his life, Countryside Church for the last 40 years. Although his farming stopped in 2025, at age 89, he could still be found in his happy place, puttering around his land on some rust bucket of a John Deere.
Glenn was preceded in death by a stillborn daughter; his parents, Beatrice and Martin; brother Ralph; stepfather Manley; in-laws Gibson and Tiny Gile; sister-in-law Carole Green; and brother-in-law Bob Gile.
He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Nelda “Nenn” Stuve; son Steven (Lynn) Stuve of Schofield; daughter Stephanie (Tim) Bodeen of Black River Falls; granddaughters Christy (Jared) Torkelson of La Farge, Hannah Joy (David) Pechacek of Westby, Arianna Stuve of Schofield, Bailey Bodeen of Menomonee Falls, Tanzie (Matt McFadden) Bodeen of Boise, ID; beloved great-grandchildren Olive, Silas, Charlie and Etta; sister Connie (John) Rajcic of Ramona, CA; sister-in-law Rozie Gile of Superior, WI; and cherished nephews and nieces and their families, Mitch, Cheryl, Roger, Martine, Chris, Kate, Jessi and Seth.
A memorial service will be held April 25, 2026, at Countryside Church in Merrillan, WI, with visitation from 12 to 2 p.m., with a service at 2 p.m., followed by a celebration of life and Military Honors at the North Branch Rod and Gun Club on Humbird’s Lake Emerson. To honor Glenn, the family requests casual clothing for the service, preferably attire representing a favorite sports team or farm implement.