{"id":10140,"date":"2020-10-13T10:35:35","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T15:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/?p=10140"},"modified":"2020-10-15T14:01:36","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T19:01:36","slug":"robert-buckner-elkader-iowa-october-12-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/2020\/10\/robert-buckner-elkader-iowa-october-12-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Buckner, Elkader, Iowa, October 12, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong>Robert Dean Buckner, 94, of Elkader, Iowa died Monday, October 12, 2020<\/strong> at Elkader Care Center, Elkader, Iowa. He was born in Marion, Iowa on January 19, 1926 to Mike \u201cMJ\u201d and Neola (Staman) Buckner. \u00a0Robert (Bob) was a beloved son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and friend.<\/p>\n

Bob was raised in Marion, Iowa, where he met the love of his life \u2013 Dorothy Dearborn Dumbolton.\u00a0 After graduating from high school, a tumultuous time in our nation\u2019s history, he entered the military.\u00a0 Hoping to follow in his idol\u2019s path, Dorothy\u2019s Uncle William Reed \u2013 an original Flying Tiger, he applied to the Air Force.\u00a0 Learning he was color blind, Bob joined the Marine Corps in 1943 where he honorably served for three years.\u00a0 In the effort to capture the Island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army, at age 19, Bob served for 32 days as part of Easy Company in the 5th<\/sup> Marine Division.\u00a0 He was one of 16 members of Easy Company to survive the battle on Iwo Jima, and was less than 1,000 yards from the famous flag raising.\u00a0 After Iwo Jima, he served during the occupation\u00a0<\/strong> of Japan.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Upon honorable discharge from the Marine Corps, Bob was united in marriage with Dorothy on December 27, 1946 in his hometown of Marion. \u00a0Married for 73 years, five children were born to this union: Jim, Sandy, Karen, John, and Robin.<\/p>\n

After time in the military, Bob received his Bachelors from the University of Northern Iowa and his Masters from The University of Iowa. \u00a0He entered a lifelong career in education serving as a teacher, coac h, principal and superintendent where his passion for education, and the students, was evident each and every day. \u00a0Bob achieved many successes in his career \u2013 a highlight of his coaching years included the Central City State Championship baseball team.\u00a0 As a Superintendent of Central Community Schools for nearly 33 years, he was instrumental in bringing girls\u2019 sports to Elkader.<\/p>\n

Bob was an enthusiastic sportsman enjoying baseball, golf\"\"ing and fishing.\u00a0 He was an avid fan of the Chicago Cubs, proudly honored at Wrigley Field for his military service. \u00a0Some of his fondest memories were fishing with his sons, Jim and John, in Canada, and visiting family in Montana.<\/p>\n

Bob is survived by his loving wife of 73 years, Dorothy of Elkader; sister Carol Jean Burns-Zimpfer of Walker, Iowa; children, Jim (Georgia) Buckner of Abilene, Texas, Sandy (Tom) Carrico of Oelwein, Iowa, Karen (Dennis) Maggert of Billings, Montana, John (Mary) Buckner of Grayslake, Illinois, and Robin (Bob) Zacher of Lake Bluff, Illinois; grandchildren, James (Kathy) Buckner, Kristina Buckner, Matthew (Jami) Carrico, Heather (Rick) Patch, Kristy (Matt) Hamar, Lyndsay (Eric) Whirley, Erin (Harrison) Karlin, Brenna Buckner, Johnny Buckner, Nicholas Zacher, and Allison Zacher; great-grandchildren, Preston Buckner, Haley Carrico, Macy Carrico, Molly Patch, Alexander Patch, Ian\u00a0\u00a0Hamar, Miah Hamar, Noah Hamar, Madisen Whirley and Emily Whirley.\u00a0 Robert is preceded in death by his parents.<\/p>\n

Bob and Dorothy were lucky enough to have a very special neighbor and friend in Mary Lee Witt. Mary Lee was more than a neighbor; she was an angel. She helped Bob and Dorothy in many ways.<\/p>\n

Funeral Services will be at 11:00 am on Friday, October 16, 2020 at Peace United Church of Christ, Elkader, Iowa with Rev. Jon Haack as the Officiant.<\/p>\n

Inurnment to be held at a later date<\/p>\n

Leonard-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service, Elkader, Iowa is helping the family with the arrangements.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Dean Buckner, 94, of Elkader, Iowa died Monday, October 12, 2020 at Elkader Care Center, Elkader, Iowa. He was born in Marion, Iowa on January 19, 1926 to Mike \u201cMJ\u201d and Neola (Staman) Buckner. \u00a0Robert (Bob) was a beloved son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and friend. Bob was raised in Marion, Iowa, where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[831],"class_list":["post-10140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-buckner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10140"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10159,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10140\/revisions\/10159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}