Theodore Alton Rebe

Theodore Alton Rebe served as President of the Derby-Shelton Rotary Club during the Rotary Year of 1948-49. During this period, he was Manager of the J.C. Penny Store at 17 Elizabeth Street in Derby. T. Alton Rebe, as he was known, was born in the village of Lee Center in Oneida County in upstate New York. He was born August 6, 1913 the son of Adolph P. Rebe, an immigrant from Switzerland, and Elizabeth Ida Evans. He married Sarah Lavena McGurdy in Ainsworth, Washington County, Iowa on May 12, 1934. 

He started his career with the J.C. Penny Company at the age of 16 as a clerk in their Utica, NY store and moved to several locations moving up the management ladder. Immediately before coming to the Valley he worked at their Binghamton, NY store. It appears that he spent only a short time in Derby before leaving to manage the Williamsport, PA. store. Later in his career, perhaps retirement time, he returned to his wife’s home area and died January 11, 1993 in Washington, Iowa at the age of 79.