Thomas Clausen

Thomas Clausen, 77, of rural Stanhope, passed away on Thursday, March 26, 2026, at Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames. Thomas Edward Clausen was born January 20, 1949, to LeMoine "Shorty" and Earlene (Myers) Clausen in Blairstown, Iowa. He attended and graduated from Benton Community High School with the Class of 1967, and continued his education at Iowa State University, where he studied art. Tom was united in marriage to Pamela Daub in 1974. To this union, children Joel, Nicolas and Rainey were born. The young family made their home in Story City, eventually relocating to rural Stanhope where Tom and Pam have made their home ever since. Tom was employed by the Department of Transportation in Ames for a time, before working for a construction company in Ames, where he specialized in painting houses. He later took a role with Story Construction, where he spent the balance of his career, supervising countless commercial construction projects, including the Barilla plant in Ames, the windmill for the Danish museum in Elkhorn, numerous projects on campus at Iowa State, and CrossRoad Baptist Church, east of Ames. In fact, he became known as the "church guy" at work, wit...[more]

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is ability to help bridge the gap between church leadership and construction engineers. Tom loved carpentry, bringing his talents home to build new kitchen cabinets, add an addition to the house, as well as many other tasks around the acreage, including planting several hundred trees on the property, establishing a vineyard and making his own wine for more than 20 years. He enjoyed being outdoors, and was an avid rock hound, always on the hunt for cool rocks and minerals. As a kid, his parents owned a resort at White Iron Lake, where he became proficient at cleaning fish, docking boats, and even built a woodland canoe to native specifications. Later in life, travel excursions to Havasupai Canyon and Ghost Canyon near the Grand Canyon or hitchhiking adventures lead him to see Miles Davis perform in Ithaca, New York. There were also numerous trips to Colorado and Wisconsin to see his children and grandchildren, Tom was a lifelong learner, he took it upon himself to attempt to learn Spanish so he could better communicate with his co-workers. He claimed to have paid for the new library in Story City with his late fees, and if he wasn't reading science fiction, he was likely either listening to KURE 88.5 college radio or watching documentaries on PBS, Discovery or History channels. Tom is lovingly remembered for his deep love of family and friends, as well as being mildly stubborn, strong willed and decisive. He was almost always in attendance at his children's events, and was the consummate Iowa State sports fan. Tom is survived by his wife, Pam, of Stanhope; his children, Joel (Ashly) Clausen of Centennial, Colorado, Nicolas (Rebecca) Clausen of Denver, Colorado, and Rainey (Zak) Manes of New Berlin, Wisconsin; grandchildren, Ronin, Vivienne, Cajsa, Evvie, Jivontae, Nivae, Javaryn and Langston, along with step-grandchildren, Jaymin, Raeya and Ciarra; his mother, Earlene Clausen of Blairstown; his siblings, Jane Clausen of Lubbock, Texas, Meg (Mike) Geater of Van Horn, Iowa, Cara (Lyal) Fox of Norway, Iowa, and Beth (Henry) Clausen of St. Paul, Minnesota; along with numerous extended family members and friends. Tom was preceded in death by his father, Shorty.