William Dale Linn

William Dale Linn (1945-2023)

William Dale Linn of Forest, Virginia went to be with his Lord on Saturday, March 4^th2023, after a lengthy illness. He was 78 years old. 

William Dale “Bill” Linn, the son of Dr Samuel Dale Linn and Erma Jessie (French) Linn, was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa on March 2, 1945. He was raised in Humboldt, Iowa where his parents owned a farm, and his father was a practicing Veterinarian. Earning the rank of Eagle Scout in 1959 at the age of 14, he graduated with Humboldt High School’s Class of 1963 before attending Iowa State University. Later graduating from Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he was employed as a mechanic and foreman by the General Motors Corporation during which time he graduated from the prestigious General Motors Institute in Flint, Michigan. On June 27, 1970, he married Carol Theresa von Ende of Mound, Minnesota with whom he shared his life for over 52 years. They owned a hunting and fishing camp on Leech Lake in northern Minnesota from 1975 to 1984 after which he was a business partner and operator of long-haul trucks during their remaining years in Minnesota. From 1993 to 2001, Bill and Carol returned to Iowa to care for Bill’s elderly parents until their passing, becoming involved in the community inclusive of Faith United Methodist Church and the Humboldt Lions Club. They subsequently relocated to Smith Mountain Lake near Moneta in 2002 where he co-founded a general contracting business. The Linns have called Forest home since 2020.

Bill was an avid outdoorsman and hunter as well as an accomplished freshwater fisherman – especially when bait-casting for trophy muskies in the lakes of northern Minnesota and Ontario, Canada. His auto racing career began in the early 1960s on dirt tracks and quarter mile drag strips across the Midwest and eventually transitioned to super gassers and nitrous funny cars and dragsters, bringing him to the tracks of the west and west coast where he collaborated and competed with the legends of the sport. The consummate Eagle Scout, he was a resourceful and exacting craftsman whose skill with a chainsaw, welding torch, woodworking tools, and trolling motor were – in short – peerless. Scratch-built race cars and street rods, thousands of tree stumps, and a fleet of Pinewood Derby cars now stand in silent tribute. ‘Anything worth doing is worth over-doing.’ As his health declined, his weeks were punctuated with feeding and watering all forms of nature and the gastronomic studies of hamburger offerings from the finest eateries in the local area. With his passing, “Burger Monday” specifically and life in general will never be the same for the family and friends he cherished and doted-on and who now miss him dearly.

Bill is survived by his wife Carol (von Ende) Linn of Forest; his son William Dale Linn II (Courtney) of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Colorado Springs, Colorado; his daughter Rachael Ann Deeds (Rob) of Petersburg, Virginia; and grandchildren – who were his joy - Darby Linn, Airman First Class Robert Deeds, Rebecca Linn, Jeffrey Deeds, William Dale Linn III, Ashley Deeds, and Kate Deeds. He was predeceased by his parents, Dr and Mrs. Samuel Linn, and is survived by his sister Julie Grubisich of Fort Wayne, Indiana; his Brother Douglas Linn (Julia) of Cole Camp, Missouri; his brother Dr David Linn (Dr Sharon Hurley) of New Ulm, Minnesota; and Donald Linn (Becky) of Buckeye, Arizona. A Celebration of Life will be held on August 12, 2023 at 2:00 PM, at Bethlehem United Methodist Church in Moneta with a subsequent internment in the family plot at Indian Mound Cemetery in Humboldt, Iowa.