HULLINGER, Loral Lester
HULLINGER, HAMILTON, RIDDLE, TILANDER, PLATO, CULP
Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 1/1/2017 at 05:31:16
Obituary ~ Loral Lester Hullinger
October 06, 1919 ~ July 04, 2008The Leon Reporter
Leon, Decatur County, IowaLoral Lester Hullinger, son of Earl Victor Hullinger and Cecil Clara (Hamilton) Hullinger, was born October 6, 1919 near Boothtown (region of Pleasanton) in Decatur County, Iowa and died June 4, 2008 at Clarke County Hospital in Osceola at the age of 88. He lived in Leon, until moving to Osceola in 1993.
Born into agriculture, second of four boys, Loral and his brothers were to become founding members of the high school's Future Farmers of America chapter; he graduated from Leon High School in 1938 and attended Iowa State University, leaving in 1939 to enter the Army. He married his high school sweetheart, Mary Riddle in June of 1940 and parented three children. Following return from active duty in 1946, he joined his father-in law's business of insurance and real estate in Leon, a career he pursued for nearly fifty years. He also farmed for forty years, beginning in 1953 until he and Mary moved to Osceola. This career track provided insight and motivation to assist those of rural Iowa with a need for improved housing, as they become senior citizens. To this end he formed the not-for-profits, South Central Iowa Development Corporation in 1972 and subsequently the Southern Iowa Regional Housing Authority in 1977.
Employing these not-for-profits, Loral successfully accessed federal funding agencies (e.g., Farmers Home Administration, Housing and Urban Development). His volunteering to form and lead collaborative teams of caring citizens resulted in south central Iowa accessing state and federal grant funding for the Rural Water program (1970s); Elderly Cottage Housing Opportunity ("Home-in-Stead", 1994); senior rural housing: Fillmore Place, Osceola (25-unit, "Full Harvest Housing, Inc.," 1998) and North Main Manor, Osceola (29-unit, "Golden Thread Housing, Inc.," 2002).
Loral was baptized in the river near New Salem Baptist and his church membership was later to be at First Christian (Leon), Park Avenue Christian (Des Moines), and First Christian (Osceola).
He valued education, especially reading, as a means to responsible citizenship. In 1998 he volunteered at the Park Avenue church for a community outreach program of tutoring elementary school children needing assistance in reading skills. The fulfillment he experienced in that program led him to combine that mentoring with his joy of riding antique tractors. In 2005 he began a "Ride-to-Read" tractor ride, through which he would highlight a four-county mentoring program for second graders identified by their teachers. The pilot program was begun in the Osceola school district in 2006. Loral led his last tractor ride in August of 2007. (On its second day the ride stopped for lunch at New Salem Baptist church and for refreshment at the city park in Pleasanton.)
Loral was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in the Army in 1944, attended the Air Force flight school, and was assigned as a flight instructor for liaison pilots of the Field Artillery Army Air Corps, at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, until his discharge in 1946; he served in the Active Reserve, retiring as Lt. Col in 1967. He was honored in 1966 by Leon as "Citizen of the Year" for his contributions to civic advancement in Leon and economic development in Decatur County; in 2005 he received the Osceola "Community Service Award." Flying his private plane and bird hunting were Loral's hobbies. His first plane was a Piper Cub in 1945 and he sold his last plane (a Bonanza) in 1986; he held a current pilot license through 2004.
Immediate relatives who preceded Loral in death were his parents, wife, and brothers Lyle C. and Argil E.
He is survived by: son Ronald Loral and wife Pat of West Lafayette, IN; son Randall Mark of Osceola; adopted son Ron Tilander of Osceola; daughter SueAnn Durine Plato and husband Leonard of Burlington, WI; grandsons David M. and wife Lori of West Lafayette, Thomas G. and wife Ruth of Shrewsbury, MA, John C. and wife Laurie of West Lafayette, step-granddaughter Natalie Plato of Chicago; special friend Betty Culp of Des Moines; brother Arlo of Leon; other relatives; and a host of valued friends.
[Interment was made at Leon Cemetery, Leon, Iowa.]
Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, December of 2016
Decatur Obituaries maintained by Constance McDaniel Hall.
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