Richard Eugene Hunsaker

Richard "Dick" Hunsaker of Sioux City passed on Feb. 23, 2016, surrounded by family, after a long life through which he had few regrets. Helen. Kids. Electrician. Veteran. Catholic. These are key words in the life of Richard "Dick" Hunsaker.
Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Sioux City. Interment will be in St. Mary's Cemetery, Mapleton, Iowa. Visitation with the family will be from 4 to 8 p.m. today, with a prayer service at 7 p.m., at Morningside Chapel, Christy-Smith Funeral Home.
Richard was born on Flag Day in 1926, on a farm rented by his parents, Ralph and Sallie (Waugh) Hunsaker, in rural Monona County north of Turin, Iowa. He grew up there at the foot of the Loess Hills, about which he liked to recount that he once saw a cow fall out of the pasture. As REA lines were installed along their road early, he never lived without electricity, even though it started out with a single outlet suspended from their kitchen ceiling. Richard had many stories of his youth and the challenges of farming during the Depression. He attended a one-room school house at Arcola and graduated from Castana (Iowa) High School in 1943. He volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps that fall while still 17.
Richard's time in the U.S. Army was all stateside as the need for pilots waned toward the end of the war, one of his disappointments. He served in Biloxi (Keesler), Altus, Carlsbad, Chicago (where he drove a truck or rode shotgun during a trucking strike), and Madison (Truax). He joined the American Legion soon after enlisting and was a continuous member for more than 70 years.
Richard returned home in early 1946 to a farm his parents had purchased east of Mapleton. When he helped a new neighbor across the road with a windmill repair, he met Helen Eckerman, a newly minted school teacher home before her first job in Blencoe, Iowa. They were married at St. Mary's Church on June 28, 1950, and "Dick" began his career as a tradesman.
Richard and his bride moved to Sioux City in 1952. While working at Swifts on and off, he would take any electrical job offered, finally achieving his union card in January 1960. He worked for Casler Electric and successive companies until his retirement from Thompson Electric in 1990, having been assigned exclusively to Cargill beginning in 1976. Richard made many lifetime friends over the years in Monona County, in the electrical trade (fellow tradesmen and customers), while at Cargill, among neighbors, and at church. Richard and Helen relished their long-term friendships and felt blessed to have so many dear friends. He loved his job and looked forward to work every day even though it meant being called out on bitterly cold nights to restore power in storms or on the top of the elevator at Cargill. Richard was a proud member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 231, and served as an officer in that organization later in his career.
Richard was a 60-year member of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church (a church he helped wire when it was built), where he had previously served on the parish council, sang in the church choir and volunteered in various ways including serving as a money counter and aiding with electrical issues in the church, school and parish center. He was an eight-gallon donor to the Siouxland Blood Bank. He served two terms as an appointee to the City of Sioux City Electrical Examining Board. Richard set an excellent moral example to his family and was guided by a strong work ethic. He was a lifelong Democrat, enjoyed studying history and was a fan of Johnny Cash and John Wayne. He undertook an update of family genealogy for all branches and wrote his autobiography which is probably part memory, part based on his detailed work logs and part legend.
Richard is survived by Helen, his wife of 65 years; children, Theresa (Ed) Thompson of Duluth, Minn., Jean (Mike) Logan of Sioux City, and Rick Hunsaker of Carroll, Iowa; grandchildren, Allie Logan and Katie Logan of Sioux City; stepgrandchildren, Ethan Thompson, Brooks Thompson, Brandon Thompson, Mike Thompson, all of Duluth, Jenny Morales and Brian Logan, both of Kansas City, Kan.; several great-stepgrandchildren; sister, Jane Green of Paola, Kan.; brothers-in-law, Walt Gowan of Washington, Iowa, and Jim (Carolyn) Eckerman of Cheyenne, Wyo.; and, many nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents; siblings, Iola Mae Bond, Robert Hunsaker (in infancy), Lois Gowan, and Ralph Hunsaker; and siblings-in-law, Doris Delaney Bush and William Eckerman.