Morris Darrell Tammen, 71, passed away on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, at his home near Thawville with his wife, children, and extended family at his side.
Visitation will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday, February 22, at the Knapp-Redenius Funeral Home in Gilman, and his funeral will be held at the Thawville Congregational Church at 1 p.m. Sunday, February 23. A celebration of life will be held at Artesia Brewing in Thawville at a later date.
Surviving are his wife Linda of Thawville; two daughters, Alison (Scott) Lirette of Royal Oak, MI and Katrina (Ryan) Reber of Thawville/Urbana; son, Evan (Angela) Tammen of Savoy; bonus daughter Sindralynn Gerdes of Thawville; and seven grandchildren, Cameron, Stella, Anna, Rex, Rose, Wren, and Theodora.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Jacquelin Whittler.
Morris was born on September 4, 1953, to Darrell H. Tammen and Everine A. (Olson) Tammen in Fairbury. He was raised on his family’s farm outside Thawville, attended Roberts-Thawville Schools, and completed his BA in Economics at Illinois Wesleyan University in 1975, where he was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity (Alpha Chapter) and the track team, setting records in long jump and triple jump. He asked Linda Brown on a date two weeks before graduation, calling her out of the blue after seeing her (attractive) yearbook photo. They were married on December 28, 1976, in Galesburg.
Morris returned home after college to work on the family farm and began exploring the Great Books of the Western World series during the cold months, which led to a lifetime of voracious reading. He was a member of the Great Books discussion group in Urbana and the Center for the Study of the Great Ideas in Chicago and loved used bookstores, discovering some of his favorite authors (Carl Jung, Erich Fromm, Colin Wilson, Mortimer Adler, and others) in his freeform browsing. He was close with his wife’s siblings and their spouses and enjoyed many summers biking across Iowa with them on RAGBRAI. He was also close with his nephew Todd Whittler and his family – Todd was more like a brother than a nephew to him. Despite suffering from a hearing impairment, Morris was passionate about music and high-end audio equipment. He was proud of his family’s brewery, Artesia, and forged many great friendships there. Throughout his life, he was true to himself and unapologetically liked what he liked (including guns, Belgian beer, whisky sours, and cats).
Morris was simultaneously shy and the life of the party – he had a special way of sidling up to people who might be feeling excluded, taking them by surprise with outrageous content and becoming their new best friend. He was immensely strong but gentle, frugal but extravagant, firm but open-minded, and perhaps too unafraid of open flames. He wasn’t afraid of death, and his only sorrow at departing was leaving his wife and beloved family. He was proud of his children and grandchildren, and in his final days would often remark that there were “no duds” in the family. He treated every day as a gift and a new adventure, even the hard days when he was dying from pancreatic cancer. He was brave until the very end and said he only had two prayers: one of gratitude, and “not my will but thine.”
Memorial contributions may be made to Illinois Wesleyan University.
Please share a memory of Morris at www.knappfuneralhomes.com.
