Stewartville gathers to celebrate life of community pillar Gordon Koehn

STEWARTVILLE, Minn. (FOX 9) - At 85 years old, Gordon Koehn had become a pillar in his southern Minnesota community; until his sudden death on March 8.

"He’s our anchor, he’s our rock," Koehn’s daughter Kathy told FOX 9 on Monday.

At Koehn’s visitation, people lined up to reflect on the career Koehn made with his talent for playing music. He worked as a music teacher at Stewartville High School for 35 years.

Still, his side gig may have had an even wider impact on generation after generation of students.

"His motto was always: it’s always fun to see kids doing good things," Kathy explained.

Koehn manned the scorer’s table at Tigers football, volleyball and basketball games for 64 years.

"He got upset if he had to miss a night," Stewartville Activities director Curt Hughes said. Community members describe Koehn as more than just a scorekeeper, because of his ability to bring players, coaches and officials together; adding that he was around to teach a lesson or offer some encouragement, "Before games, after games," Hughes said. "He’s touched so many people in our school."

"A dad not just to us, but to so many people," Kathy said.

Last Friday the Stewartville girl basketball team advanced to the state tournament for the first time in school history. And now when they take the court next, they’ll keep Koehn’s legacy alive, with these patches on their team gear.

"It’s overwhelming, surreal, I think he would be honored," Kathy said.