Friendship Haven has been part of Fort Dodge for so long that people take it for granted.

Last week, a series of special events showed just how long Friendship Haven has been an integral part of the community — 75 years.

When the first residents moved into the former East Building in July 1950, Harry Truman was the president, the Korean War had just started and Elvis Presley had yet to record a hit song.

And while the retirement community opened in1950, the planning for it began a few years earlier. The concept of Friendship Haven was the idea of one Methodist minister, the Rev. Dr. Clarence Tompkins.

In the late 1940s, there were a few good retirement homes and nursing homes, but a lot of them simply didn’t measure up. They were grim places even at the time and certainly did not meet any modern expectation or standard.

Tompkins became acutely aware of this while serving as a pastor in Eagle Grove, according to the book “Dream No Little Dreams,” a history of Friendship Haven published in 2000.

“Iowa had the highest percentage of senior citizens in the nation,” Tompkins is quoted as saying in the book. “It also had many wretched nursing homes where thousands of our fine citizens who had helped build our communities were rotting.”

He envisioned a place where senior citizens could live lives of purpose, rather than being warehoused in a cramped building. To us in the 21st Century, that seems like a no-brainer, but Tompkins’ vision wasn’t all that common when he started working on what would become Friendship Haven.

Tompkins worked with many people, including former Iowa Gov. Robert Blue, to make his vision a reality. It wasn’t easy.

Getting enough money to build the facility was a huge challenge in the early years.

Tompkins and his team also had another challenge: coming up with a name for the place. According to Julie Thorson, the current president and chief executive officer, the board had a meeting during which potential names were written on a chalk board. As the meeting dragged on, Sally Snyder, the wife of one of the board members, came in and looked at the potential names that had been written down. Then she picked up a piece of chalk and drew a line connecting the words “friendship” and “haven.”

In December 1946, the leaders of the movement to build the retirement home envisioned by Tompkins accepted an offer from the Fort Dodge Betterment Foundation for the land where Friendship Haven now stands.

The East Building opened in July 1950. Others followed over the years. All of those buildings are now gone, replaced over the last roughly 25 years with new, spacious facilities that offer everything from independent living to nursing care.

Friendship Haven has thrived since its doors first opened thanks to literally generations of residents, staff, members, board members and volunteers. It is a special place that has become the envy of the rest of the state, if not the Midwest,

We thank all who made Friendship Haven what it is today and we anticipate at least another 75 years of its success at serving those who have sometimes been described as God’s older children.