Fred J. Buss 1922 - 1988

BUSS, ALTHAUS

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/16/2021 at 22:47:49

Sioux City Journal
9 June 1988

Fred J. Buss, 66, Route 1, Sioux City, retired Sioux City school principal, died Tuesday, June 7, 1988, at his residence after a lengthy illness of cancer.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Friday in Calvary Lutheran Church with the Rev. Ronald Flentgen and the Rev. Steve Benson officiating. Burial will be in Fairfield Cemetery at Rock Branch, Iowa. Visitation will be from noon to 9 p.m. today with a prayer service at 7:30 p.m. in Nelson-Berger Northside Chapel.

Mr. Buss was born May 30, 1922, in George, Iowa, where he attended schools and graduated from George High School in 1940. He married Lorna F. Althaus Dec. 18, 1943, at Salem Lutheran Church in Correctionville, Iowa. He received his bachelor's degree from Westmar College in 1947 and his master's degree from Colorado State College in Greeley in 1952. He did additional graduate work at the University of South Dakota, University of Iowa and Northern Michigan University at Marquette, Mich.

Mr. Buss was an industrial arts teacher at Woodbine, Iowa, from 1947-1949 where he also coached the baseball, basketball, football and track teams. He then taught in George for four years and also coached girls’ basketball and boys’ basketball and baseball. The couple moved to Sioux City in 1953 and he taught physical education and coached freshman boys’ basketball at West Junior High School. In 1956 he was appointed principal of Riverview and Webster schools. He became principal of only Riverview School in 1957, a position he held for 28 years until his retirement.

Mr. Buss was a well-known Northwest Iowa sports official for 40 years, officiating at basketball, football and baseball games. He was instrumental in organizing youth baseball in Sioux City and coached Little League, Babe Ruth and Legion teams.

He was a member of the Iowa High School Athletic Association and lifetime member of NEA. He was a member of Calvary Lutheran Church where he taught Sunday school, coached girls’ basketball, served on several sessions of the Church Council and was a past president of the council.

A captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, he served as a radar navigator and bombardier in the Pacific theater.

Survivors include his wife; two sons, Michael of Norfolk, Va., and Daniel of Sioux City; three daughters, Mary of London, England and Marjean and Betsy, both of Minneapolis; two sisters, Mrs. Anna Elzenga of Long Beach, Calif., and Mrs. Henry (Johanna) Heerkens of Rochester, N.Y., and five grandchildren, Larry, Lana and Diana Buss, Dawn Scott and John Altemeier.

Memorials have been established in his name with Hospice of Siouxland and the American Cancer Society.