Christopher Rhodes Burwell
Christopher Rhodes Burwell, 24, of Sioux City died Friday, Sept. 14, 2007, in Sioux City.
Services will be 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Mark Lutheran Church, with the Rev. John Hagberg officiating. Burial will be in Graceland Park Cemetery. Visitation will be 5 to 8 p.m. today, with the family present 5 to 7 p.m., at Christy-Smith Morningside Chapel.
Christopher was born June 25, 1983, in Minneapolis, Minn., to Robert W. Jr. and Paula (Stickney) Burwell. He grew up in Sioux City and attended Sioux City Public Schools until his sophomore year, when he moved to Le Mars, where he graduated from Le Mars High School in 2001. Christopher lettered in track and field and was a member of the chorus. He went on to Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, Iowa, graduating in 2004 with an associate degree in business. After graduating from DMACC, he worked in the restaurant industry at various restaurants in Ankeny, Prescott, Ariz. and Sioux City.
He was a member of Salem Lutheran Church of rural Correctionville, Iowa, and a former member of St. John's Lutheran Church in Le Mars and First Lutheran and St. Mark Lutheran Churches in Sioux City. He was a youth representative for the Western Iowa Synod Council of Lutheran Churches. Christopher's hobbies included being an avid Minnesota Twins baseball fan, working on a friend's stock car and working to restore a 1991 Datsun 280Z. He also held a first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Survivors include his father, Robert W. "Bert" Burwell Jr. of Correctionville; his mother, Paula and Jim Reider of Holdrege, Neb.; a sister, Emily and Eric Hass of Sioux City; a niece, Melanie; a nephew, Avery; two stepsisters, Christina and Jovonte Johnson of Minneapolis, Minn. and Jessica Reider of Minneapolis; a step niece, Ayla; a step nephew, Tyler; and special friend, April Johnson of Sioux City.
He was preceded in death by his maternal and paternal grandparents.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be directed to Jackson Recovery Center in his name.