Memorials › Chester George Dunckley

Chester George Dunckley

17 Aug 1914 – 22 Nov 1992

Birth17 Aug 1914
Death22 Nov 1992
CemeteryHayden Cemetery
Hayden , Routt County , Colorado , USA
Added byGary Muse on 11 Aug 2013
FaGhttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/84030581

Bio

Chester George Dunckley died Nov. 22, 1992 at Routt Memorial Hospital in Steamboat Springs. He was 78. Funeral services were held Nov. 27 at the Hayden Congregational Church, Fr. Carl Longwill officiating. Chester was born on the John Dunckley ranch in Dunckley on Aug. 17, 1914, the son of Walter Herman Dunckley and Mary Alice Yoast Dunckley. He spent his early childhood on the family ranch about two miles southwest of Phippsburg. Chester's parents were divorced in 1924, when he was about 10 years old, and from then on, he went to work and to school, wherever his mother could find employment. He graduated from the eighth grade in Fairplay; at the time he was driving an ore wagon for a gold mine in Alma. He left home at that tender age as he didn't get along with his new stepfather. Chester returned to Routt County and worked for several area ranchers around Steamboat and the Sidney area. As he was large for his age and a hard worker, he had no difficulty holding ranch jobs. He even spent a few months planting trees for the Forest Service near Colorado Springs. Chester was riding range and doing other ranch work for his uncle John Dunckley in 1939, when he met Eleanor Kagie, whose family had a ranch in the Dunckley area, also. Eleanor Marie Kagie was born April 3, 1919, daughter of Edwin Kagie and Matilda Ann Kaiser Kagie on their ranch in Dunckley. She attended a small country school through the fifth grade. The family moved to Hayden during the school year, leaving her father to "batch" on the ranch during the week. Eleanor graduated from Hayden High School in May 1936. Eleanor and Chester were married on April 3, 1941 and spent the first summer in Edgerton, Wyo. where Chester was employed in the oil fields. They returned to Colorado where Chester did agricultural work, for others and for himself. In 1957, the family moved to Hot Sulphur Springs, where Chester was employed on the Williams Fork dam project. A succession of jobs followed, including a summer working for the Forest Service and a winter on a tunnel job on Fremont Pass. The family returned to Routt County and Hayden. There Chester worked at both the power plants in Hayden and Craig. Between plants, he helped build electric transmission lines, did highway construction, and was once again working at the power plant in Craig at the time of his retirement in 1979. Since that time, the Dunckleys had spent their time traveling, doing crafts and hobbies, and taking college classes in anything interesting -- upholstery, painting, college accounting, etc. Chester was preceded in death by his parents; brother, Herman; daughter, Virginia; and son, Donald. Chester leaves his wife, Eleanor Kagie Dunckley; sons, Donald Ralph of Denver, Maurice George of Kenai, Alaska and Russell Alan of Dsllas, Texas; daughters Carol Marie of San Francisco, Calif. and Lynette Rose of Buffalo, Minn.; three grandchildren, Kellena Ann, Curtis Alan and Travis Lee; brother, Otto of Denver; and two sisters, Verna Robinson of Aurora and Dorothy Wright of Denver. During the mass of Christian burial on Nov. 25, organist Avis Funk, pianist Ayliff Zehner and soloist Jack Zehner played "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere" and "Old Rugged Cross." Pallbearers included Frank Dunckley, Mark Kugie, Gene Clapper, Lynn Holmes, Delbert Kemry and George Wilson. Interment was at the Hayden Cemetery. Memorial donations can be made in Chester's name to the American Lung Association in care of Grant Mortuary.--Steamboat Pilot, Thursday, Dec. 3, 1992, Pg. 23

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