How do you measure a man’s life when he dies?  Where to start.  Harold Frederick Stroupe (Fred) was born February 1, 1926, in a hospital in Milwaukee Wisconsin.  He was the eldest of 6 children. Siblings (Philip Stroupe, Dawn Hilt, Del Stroupe, Doris Kieselberg, and David Stroupe) Growing up as the eldest, he led his siblings in playing farm.  He possessed 7 red clay bricks, and his siblings fewer, so he was always the one building the 7 bricker barn.  Fred died August 31, 2025 at the age of 991/2.  His life witnessed nearly one third of our nation’s presidents, most of whom would never garnish his vote.

At age 21 with borrowed money, he jumped into renting and then buying a farm and milking cows, day and night, for 32 years.  Most of that time he owned a milk truck and between his daily milkings he hauled his and his neighbor’s milk to processing plants near and far.  Only weighing 130 lbs. Fred spent this part of his day throwing 80 lb. containers of milk up into his truck.  He toughed through a year of sciatic nerve pain, all while keeping food on the family table and the mortgage paid.

Four years younger, Willie Hagen the “Love of His Life” entered Fred’s world when he was a senior in high school. She loved Fred taking her to the movies but she always had to wake him up when the movie was over.  They were married 71 years, until Willie’s death in 2019.  They raised 4 children, Sam (Kathleen) Stroupe of Armstrong Mo., Vickie (Mark) Gassman of Roanoke Mo., Penny (Pete) Brown of Glasgow Mo., Tami (Bill) Verner of Armstrong Mo., and a year-old son Freddie who died of heart complications.  Willie’s youngest sister Ardyth Albertson (Roy) was like another daughter in Fred and Willie’s family.

Over the years a dozen kids found food, beds, and a safe place under Fred and Willie’s roof, for both short and often extended times.  Fred employed many young men on the dairy farm.  The local sheriff occasionally told a student heading for trouble you can go to jail or go live with Fred and Wille Stroupe and work on the farm.  The first option really wasn’t a choice.

In younger years, he and Willie went out square dancing nearly every Saturday night.  Once a year they’d vacation overnight in a motel on a lake with a few other couples, and a quick fishing event as the sun came up.  Then back to work for them all.

Fred’s mind was always working.  Raising 5 acres of tobacco in Wisconsin paid the farm mortgage.  He heard about free stall housing for milk cows.  In a 4’ by 8’ dry bedded stall, the cows could relax and sleep.  Fred built the 2nd free stall cattle building in the nation, now the standard cattle housing method in the inclement climate zones.  He was an early user of AI on cattle.  That’s Artificial Insemination, not Artificial Intelligence.  Fred was among one of the first in Wisconsin to put in contour strip cropping to minimize soil erosion.  Early on he was putting alfalfa, oats, peas, as well as corn and milo into cement silos and long plastic tubes.  He was among the small handful of farmers to begin no tillage cropping in 1966 and early on began terracing his crop land to minimize erosion.

And yes, in the mid 60’s, he dumped out cow’s milk on the ground in protest of low milk prices.  He and other NFO (National Farmer’s Organization) members were struggling to achieve parity prices for farmers nationwide, Heard tell of farmers putting sugar cubes in the gas tanks of farm trucks being used for hauling cattle to market during the NFO holding action.  Surely my dad was not involved in that.

At age 40, Fred joined the migration of Northern Farmers to Missouri in pursuit of lower land prices and milder winters.  In the early 80’s he quit milking cows and went to beef cows and over the road trucking. He retired from trucking in 2000 at the age of 74.  Fred continued caring for the cow herd until age 92, while also working as a jailor under Howard County Sheriff Charles Polson.

In addition, Fred served as Mayor of Armstrong, Missouri for 4 years until 2004, having the same responsibilities as big town Mayors of street care, water and sewer systems, policing and pit bull problems.  But of course, no pay. As Armstrong Mayor, Fred began the repaving of all the town’s streets and construction of the new city hall/community center.  He treated all citizens with respect but if some had complaints about services that could not be solved, they were reminded they were free to live elsewhere.

He was a founding member of Sharon Bible Church and the Howard County Progressives.  Figure that one out.  In the 70’s he revitalized Howard County’s NFO and with them built a hog collection and marketing facility.  Seems like over half the county's farmers worked together on this attempt to gain fair prices for America’s food producers.

Fred chose to live his last 6 years at Ashbury Heights in Fayette where he loved and was loved by the staff there.  Reading was a huge part of his life since childhood and he filled his last years with extensive reading and keeping up with local and national news.  Also filling his time was a flow of visits from his 4 children, 15 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.

Two regrets.  He would have loved to have seen his 100th birthday, but 99 1/2 is not bad and he would have loved to see a woman president.  Fred died of complications from diabetes and a bone infection.

Rest in peace old man you remained firm in your faith. You loved and were loved.  A well measured man, an example for all of us that you and Willie spawned.  In your century of life, you crossed paths with thousands, and those who lingered in that crossing were blessed.

A memorial service for Mr. Stroupe will be 4 PM, Sunday, September 7, 2025, at Friemonth-Freese Funeral Home in Fayette.  Visitation is one hour prior to the service at the funeral home, starting at 3 PM.  Private inurnment will be held at Sharon Cemetery in Armstrong, MO.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions are suggested to Coyote Hill or Sharon Cemetery, c/o Friemonth-Freese Funeral Service, 174 Hwy. 5 & 240 N., Fayette, MO 65248.