Vearl was "in school" for fifty-one years and helped a lot of students along the way, in more ways than just what the curriculum called on him to present. His days of helping people did not end the day he retired from teaching, for he was a historian and genealogist at heart. For the rest of his active days, he spent working on the goal of keeping the county's history known and "roots diggers" assisted with their queries, writing several books and recording every burial ground in Wright County that he was told about....brambles, briar patches and barbed wire fences; creeks, crusted markers and cantakerous cows; only rain, sleet, snow and the dark of night could deter him from his determined rounds.
Vearl spoke to the Wright County Historical and Genealogical Society on April 27, 1987. During part of that talk, he read a poem which had made an impression on him. Two lines from that poem, "Then we find those splendid persons upon whom we can depend, And we feel that we've been honored when we hear them call us 'friend.'"
Thank you Vearl Rowe, Teacher, Genealogist, Historian, Author, WCHS member and above all else FRIEND. It was a privilege to have known you.