Eldon Ray Hand, 76, of Nevada, Iowa, passed away on December 3rd, 2022 after his battle with cancer.

Ray was born on October 9th, 1946, to William Delane and Geraldine "Gerry" (Looney) Hand in Des Moines, Iowa. Ray started working after high school and soon met his first wife, Joanne Cooper, whom he had two children with, Susan and Ray Jr.

Eldon served in the United States Army from 1966 to 1969. While enlisted, he served one tour in Vietnam. Eldon remained in the reserves until 1972. After his term of service, Eldon worked in multiple different fields, ranging from maintenance technician to CNA.

In 1986 Eldon met Connie Baker. During their eight years of marriage they had one daughter, Ashley. While working as a manager at a bar, he met Marlo Hayes. They proceeded to have four children together, Victoria "Torry", Samantha "Sammye", Delaney, and Nicolas "Jax". Since 2012 Eldon has worked for multiple small companies as a maintenance technician and as a production operator at 3M.

Eldon is survived by his children, Susan (Hand) and Jerry Duke, Ray Cooper Jr., Ashley (Hand) and David McDermid, Victoria Hand, Samantha Hand, Delaney Hand and Nicolas Hand; grandchildren, Jacob, Johnathan, Emily, Cody, Grant, Brock, Carson, Ethan, MacKynlee, Juniper, Aurora and Greyson.

While a funeral service is currently scheduled for the spring, a celebration of life is being planned for January with more details to come. In lieu of flowers, donations for the celebration of life or funeral services are appreciated.