A funeral service for Jim Huffman, age 49, of Spirit Lake, was held Monday, March 14, 2022, at Turner Jenness Funeral Home in Spirit Lake. Burial was at St. Andrew’s Catholic Cemetery in Sibley.
James Elliott Huffman was born March 2, 1972, in Harlan, Iowa, to Gary and Wanda Huffman. The family moved to Harris, Iowa,and later to Spirit Lake, Iowa,where Jim attended Spirit Lake School.
Jim loved spending time in the outdoors, often going camping for days at a time. During these times he would enjoy one of his favorite hobbies, “headhunting”, searching for Indian artifacts, building a large collection of handmade mallets, hammers, hide scrapers and arrow|heads. He also looked for petrified wood pieces, rocks, stones and other wood that he would carve into beautiful pieces of jewelry or collectible items. He could envision things in this mind and then carve it out exactly how he saw it.
On October 31, 2016, Jim and Lisa Krogman were married. They had a very small ceremony with one special someone attending, Gizmo the Chihuahua.
On July 21, 2019, their son, Kylo Wayne, was born and joined his brothers, Karson and Kaden (Jim’s sons). Jim loved the time he spent with Lisa and Kylo visiting museums, antique stores and “foreign” walmarts. One of his favorite outings was to the pumpkin patch with Lisa, his three sons, their significant others and his beautiful granddaughter, Emersyn Sara Huffman who was born November 25, 2020.
Jim worked for Blattner Energy on windmills. He started by climbing up to the top as a tower climber, many times 235 feet in the air. In January of 2020, Jim attended crane school and became a certified crane operator. He loved his job and was so proud of his position. He had many stories to share about the type of equipment he operated and especially enjoyed the people he worked with. With this job, he, Lisa and Kylo moved to several states. He was always happy to come back home although he would tell us how much he couldn’t wait to get back to work.
If he wasn’t playing practical jokes on any of his family, he was planning on what he was going to buy everyone for Christmas or birthdays. He would come home several nights with a surprise for Lisa and Kylo. Some of the stuffed animals were nearly his size.
Everyone has so many good stories and memories spent with Jim. Lisa hopes everyone will keep sharing these good time memories with his two year old son, Kylo, so his memory of Daddy lives on forever.
Left to cherish his memory are his wife, Lisa Huffman; sons, Karson (Maya Whithaus), Kaden (Payton Echter) and Kylo; granddaughter, Emeryson; brother, Joe Huffman; sister, Jane Blum (Al Anderson); sister-in-law, Amy Jacobsma (Jeff Glienke); brother-in-law, Kelly Krogman (Jennifer); mother-in-law, Arlene Krogman; many nieces, nephews, great-nieces, great-nephews and friends.
Jim was preceded in death by his mother, Wanda Farnes (Jim); father, Gary Huffman; father-in-law, Wayne Krogman; brother and sister-in-law, Douglas and Chandra Krogman; maternal and paternal grandparents.
Turner Jenness Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.