Chester Dean GUNDERSON

GUNDERSON, PIERCE, BOELMAN, ECKHOFF, STRAUB, KUHLMANN, BUCKLES, WOLFF, DEAN, QUANDT

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 11/1/2014 at 11:35:06

September 12, 1935 --- October 28, 2014

BELMOND, IA -- Chester Dean Gunderson, age 79, of Conyers, Georgia, formerly of Belmond, passed away Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014, at his home in Conyers. Funeral services for Chester Dean Gunderson will be held at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Belmond. Pastor Alan Schulz will officiate. Burial will take place in the Belmond Cemetery at a later date. Visitation for Chester Dean Gunderson will be held from 4-6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014, at Dugger Funeral Home, 111 Luick’s Lane South in Belmond, and will continue for one hour prior to the service on Sunday at the church. A Masonic Lodge service will held at 6 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home.

Dean was born Sept. 12, 1935, in Belmond, to Chester Truman and Sena Caroline Gunderson. He attended country school, later enrolling in the Belmond School. He graduated in 1953 from Belmond High School. He played basketball and loved sports, fishing, and hunting.

Dean met Mavis Pierce in his junior year of high school and they were engaged in the summer of 1954, later marrying on Jan. 1, 1955. Three children were born of this union, Catherine Coleen, Susan Deanne, and Dennis Dean. At the time the General Mills Feed Plant was being built; Dean worked on the construction of it, being hired on in the plant upon completion. He worked there until they closed the plant. He then joined Ris Van Fertilizer in the office. With the new owner, USS Agri Chemicals, he was transferred to Chicago Heights, Illinois, office where he spent two years. A transfer to St Louis, Missouri, as accounting manager followed. From there he was assigned the Wilmington, North Carolina, office in same position. Upon closing that office he went to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he worked four years until he closed that office and was moved to the home office in Atlanta, Georgia. Dean and Mavis lived in Stone Mountain, Duluth, and Conyers, Georgia, since that time.

Dean was a very caring and loving person and loved by many. Dean and Mavis would have celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary on January 1. They were blessed to have shared these years and they were good years. Dean’s children and grandchildren were very special to him and he was so proud of all three of them. He treasured time with his grandchildren, always sharing his love for his Heavenly Father, nature, animals, and family. His friends became part of his family and he treasured long lasting friendships with many.

He is preceded in death by his Mother and Father, niece Julie Boelman and nephew Bruce Pierce and great-nephew Brian Eckhoff. Left to survive him are the love of his life Mavis, daughter, Cathy and husband Robert Straub, Susan and husband Michael Kuhlmann, and Dennis and wife Jane Gunderson along with grandchildren Dean (and wife Hope) and Amanda Gunderson and Ian Kuhlmann. Also left to grieve are his sister, Bonnie and husband Richard Eckhoff, and nephews David Boelman, Jim (Connie) Eckhoff, Jon (Dawn) Eckhoff, and his brother-in-law Jim (Iris) Pierce, sister-in-law Jo Pierce, and nieces/nephews Cathy Rae, Patty, and Clayton Pierce, Steve, David, and Carol Buckles, Jimmy, Jeff Pierce and Lori Wolff, Harold Dean and Brian Quandt. Dugger Funeral Home, Belmond, Iowa.

http://www.duggerfunerals.com/CurrentServices.html