Earl A. Reitan Obituary (1925 - 2015)

Earl A. Reitan, 90, of Normal, died on Thursday, October 15, 2015 at Martin Health Center, Bloomington.He was born May 3, 1925 in Grove City, Minnesota, the son of Ernest A. Reitan and Caren Helene Reitan. He married Carol Anne Rylander in 1956. She preceded him in death in 2014.Surviving are his daughter, Julia Reitan and her husband, Stan Kaufman; and his son, Thomas Reitan and his wife, Leslie and their two children, William and Mary. He is also survived by his brother Phillip Reitan.Earl served in World War II as a U.S. Army rifleman and was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. After the war he returned to Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1954. Later that year he joined the Social Science Department at Illinois State Normal University (now Illinois State University.) He was chairman of the History Department from 1970-1973 and retired in 1990.In retirement he pursued writing projects including two memoirs, Rifleman: On the Cutting Edge of World War II (2001) and Crossing the Bridge: Growing up Norwegian-American in Depression and War 1925-1946 (2002), and a novel, I Was a Teenage Rifleman in World War II (2004). At the age of 82 he published a work of scholarship, Politics, Finance, and the People: Economical Reform in England in the Age of the American Revolution, 1770-1792 (2007.)rnrnThroughout his life he was an active supporter of his wife, Carol Reitan, as she pursued a public career, including as Normals first and only female mayor. He also golfed, biked, and liked to play games with his children and grandchildren. He loved to converse about the world of politics and the arts, whether in a historical context or contemporary times.A memorial service will be held at 3pm on Thursday, November 5th at Ewing Manor, followed by light refreshments. In lieu of flowers, memorials in his honor may be made to the Normal Public Library or the charity of your choice.