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Gary Fraser Bostrom, 85 of West Union, Iowa passed away on Friday, January 8, 2021 in the town he loved, surrounded by his family who adored him. Gary was an outstanding husband, father, grandfather, friend, business-owner, citizen and Iowa Hawkeye fan. One would be hard-pressed to find a better all-around good guy.<\/p>\n
Gary was born on October 28, 1935 to Carl and Vivian Bostrom in Waterloo, Iowa. He was the younger brother of Patricia. He attended Waterloo school until 1943 when they moved to West Union.\u00a0\u00a0 He loved playing basketball and participated in music and drama through his graduation in 1953. He had the lead in the play \u201cOur Town\u201d, and made All State Choir. In 1949, Gary and his good friend, B.J.Ukena, were the second and third to earn their Eagle Scout awards in West Union. Gary made many memories and lifetime friendships during this time.\u00a0 After high school, Gary went on to attend the University of Iowa where he graduated with a degree in business, and was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity.<\/p>\n
Gary worked at Quaker Oats and Folgers before returning to West Union to work alongside his dad in the family grocery business. In 1957, he was introduced to the love of his life, Marolyn Sersland, and he married her in 1958 right after, Gary was drafted into the United States Army in 1958.\u00a0 Upon their return from Korea Gary and Marolyn come back to West Union, where Gary would eventually take over the ownership and operation of what would become Bostrom\u2019s Super Valu. He retired from the store in 1998. Gary enjoyed travel, golf, fishing and time with his friends and family.<\/p>\n
Gary and Marolyn raised four children in West Union, and he was very involved in his community throughout the rest of his life. He was a lifetime member of Bethel Presbyterian Church, served as a director on the board of First National Bank, was active with the Rotary Club, and was even named Citizen of the Year with his wife, Marolyn, in 2007.<\/p>\n
In October of 2019, Gary was selected to complete the Veteran\u2019s Honor Flight to Washington DC.<\/p>\n
Gary leaves a legacy of leading with honesty, integrity, love and grace. He believed in working hard, and loved being able to spend quality time with his family at holidays and on many lake vacations throughout the years.<\/p>\n
Gary is survived by his wife, Marolyn; children, David (Pam) Bostrom of Owatonna, Minnesota, Mark (Robin) Bostrom, Fayette, Iowa, Laurie (Jim) Kirkpatrick, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Lea Rae (Jeremy) VanHorn, West Union, Iowa; ten grandchildren; Valerie (Nathan) DeBruin, Frisco, Texas, Lauren (Reese) Bostrom Davis, Billings, Montana, Jack Bostrom, Bloomington, Minnesota, Lucas (Katie) Bostrom, Grimes, Iowa, Alexandra (Clay) Spear, Beaman, Iowa, Haley Kirkpatrick, Univ of Alabama, Jenna Kirkpatrick, Indiana Univ, Joshua DeLuca, Iowa State University, Drew DeLuca, West Union, Iowa, Levi VanHorn, West Union, Iowa, and great-grandchildren, Kyler Bostrom, Grimes, Iowa, and Harper Davis, Billings, Montana, as well as his brother-in-law, Tex Heyer and family and sister-in-law, Sonja Sersland and family and many close friends.<\/p>\n
Gary was preceded in death by his parents, Carl and Vivian Bostrom, and his sister, Patricia. Heyer.<\/p>\n
The Family is most grateful for the loving caregivers, who took care of Gary in his home the past 6 months.\u00a0 \u00a0Julie Larson & Merry Wiedow (Circle of Life Services) Thank you!<\/p>\n
Memorials may be sent to Palmer Hospice, West Union or Palmer Hospital Foundation.<\/p>\n
There will be a private family service held.<\/p>\n
Burnham-Wood-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service of West Union, Iowa is assisting the family with arrangements.<\/p>\n
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Gary Fraser Bostrom, 85 of West Union, Iowa passed away on Friday, January 8, 2021 in the town he loved, surrounded by his family who adored him. Gary was an outstanding husband, father, grandfather, friend, business-owner, citizen and Iowa Hawkeye fan. One would be hard-pressed to find a better all-around good guy. Gary was born […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[871],"class_list":["post-10685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-bostrom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10685","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=10685"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10714,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10685\/revisions\/10714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}