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No death is easy, and there is always tough loss to go with it.
That being said, the community of Mineral Point was saddened this past week with the death of two community leaders and icons.
The community lost Bruce Howdle unexpectedly and Greg Gorgen after a long illness. Both are tremendous losses for both Mineral Point and the entire area.
Bruce Howdle was raised on a farm and went on to study art. He made it his life and to own a piece of his pottery is to own a treasure. He taught art at UW-Platteville and had many students who admit loving to learn from him. He was leader both in the art community and the business community. Besides that he was one of the nice guys.
Greg Gorgen was one of the good ones too. He studied to become a funeral director and came back to go into business with his father. He later passed the funeral business onto his sons.
He was a fan of Mineral Point athletics and added in a touch of Dodgeville too when one of his sons moved there to assume the funeral business. He was a highly respected husband, father, grandfather and businessman. The Gorgen family has been a generous supporter of many community causes.
As a side note, it is great he got to witness a Chicago Cubs World Series Title in his lifetime.
Losing those two men is hard. We offer our sympathy to their families