Edward Jankus 09/19/2019

Edward Jankus, age 89 of River Falls, died Thursday, September 19, 2019 at Kinnic Health and Rehab in River Falls. He was born 17 March 1930, Evangelical Hospital, Chicago, Il to Helen Marie Hultgen and Charles Joseph Jankus. Ed was raised in Chicago, IL until 1942 when family moved to rural Phillips, WI where Ed completed eighth grade grammar school in a one-room rural Miller Road school.  After graduating Phillips High School in 1948, Ed worked as a clerk for Commonwealth Edison in Chicago.  He followed his father to Melrose, WI to engage in dairy farming. He was denied an agriculture military deferment because of his registration with the Chicago Draft Board.  He was drafted into the US Army during the Korean War and served from Nov 1951 to Nov 1953.
Ed took advantage of the GI education benefits, attending UW-River Falls.  He enjoyed the good fortune to be admitted to the U of MN College of Veterinary Medicine after a year and half pre-vet medicine education. Upon graduating Ed worked for two years in a small animal veterinary practice in Illinois after which he joined the faculty of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the U of MN.  He accepted an appointment as an instructor in Veterinary Physiology.  He earned a PhD and published original research during his career at the U of MN. His seminal research was the demonstration of furazolidone toxicity in the etiology of Round Heart disease in turkeys.  Other researchers would follow confirming the toxicity of the nitrofuran class of drugs eventually leading the FDA to ban the use of all nitrofurans from medical use.
Ed met his future wife (Ruby Roehl) while both were students at UW-River Falls.  Interestingly, they met while both were enrolled in an Advanced Genetics course.  They were married Dec 17, 1955 in Ezekiel Lutheran Church in River Falls, WI. Ed and Ruby were blessed with two children, Mark and Ward.  Ruby died January 7, 2017 from cerebral stroke.  Ed died Sept 19, 2019.  His cremated remains will be buried next to those of his beloved wife in the German Settlement Cemetery, Troy Township, Hudson, WI. Cremation services provided by Bakken-Young Funeral & Cremation Services.
So Mote It Be