Obituary: Irma Bodil Orum Dies at Age 88

Irma Bodil Orum (née Hertzmann), 88, died the morning of Sunday, September 22, 2019, at The Danish Home of Chicago. Here she had been a resident for over six years. Irma entered into hospice care on August 27th and was surrounded by family and friends daily through her hospice care period.

The daughter of Danish immigrants Carl and Katrine Hertzmann, Irma was born on March 4, 1931 in Chicago. After graduating from Kelvyn Park High School, she studied at Wilbur Wright College and began her business administrative career at the Chicago corporate offices of The American Cancer Society and Icelandic Airlines. On February 4, 1967, she married Peter Orum at St. James Episcopal Church in Dundee, Illinois. As a team, they founded and built the Midwest Companies in the horticulture industry, including Midwest Groundcovers LLC and Midwest Trading Inc.

Irma was a lover of nature, the arts and the outdoors; she was an experienced world traveler and took pride in her Danish heritage. She was greatly loved by her husband, daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren.

She is survived by her husband, Peter Orum, her daughter, Christa (Craig) Orum-Keller, and grandchildren – Christian Keller and Lydia Orum-Keller. Preceded in death by her parents and son, Stig Peter Orum.

A visitation will be held on Sunday, September 29, 2019 from 2 – 6:00 p.m. at Yurs Funeral Home, 405 East Main Street (corner of Route 64 & Route 25), St. Charles, IL.

Funeral with Eucharist will be held at 10:00 a.m., on Monday, September 30th, at St. James Episcopal Church, 516 Washington Street, West Dundee, Illinois with The Reverend Donald Frye officiating and The Reverend Rebecca Crummey guest celebrant. Private interment will be at Littlewoods Cemetery in St. Charles. A reception and lunch will be held at St. Charles Country Club, 1250 Country Club Rd, St. Charles, IL, beginning at 12:30 p.m. where all are invited.

Donations in Irma’s memory can be made to either the Stig P. Orum Memorial Foundation at stigorumfoundation.com or to The Peter & Irma Orum Research Fund through the Horticulture Research Institute, The AmericanHort Foundation at https://www.hriresearch.org/donate.

The above obituary appeared on the Yurs Funeral Home website.