Robert Dean Ecklund, Emporia
1917 - 2007
Robert Dean Ecklund of Emporia died Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007, at Newman Regional Health. He was 90.
Mr. Ecklund taught journalism and English in the English Department at Kansas State Teachers College in Emporia (now Emporia State University), where he began working in 1964 and also worked with the school yearbook staff. He was sports information director during part of his time at ESU before he retired in 1980. From 1960 to 1964, he was principal at the grade school in Harveyville. He also participated in the Mentoring and Personal Success program of Lowther South Intermediate School.
During World War II, Mr. Ecklund served in the Army Air Corps as a pilot of P-38 reconnaissance planes. He was shot down over Italy in December 1943 and was held as a prisoner of war in Luft 1 and, later, in Stalag 13 in Germany. He left the Army Air Corps as a captain and later retired from the Air Force Reserve as a lieutenant colonel.
The son of Albert and Mabel Nelson Ecklund, he was born June 28, 1917, at Burdick. He graduated from Kansas State University in Manhattan with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and from Emporia State University with a master’s degree in education.
He married Margaret Ann Nicoson on May 9, 1959, at Palmyra, Wis. She died Jan. 13, 1987, at Topeka.
Mr. Ecklund was active in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program for 30 years. He also worked with the Boy Scouts, in which he was Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 152 for more than 40 years. He was awarded the Silver Beaver from the Jayhawk Area Council, Boy Scouts of America. He was a member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart Post 648, American Legion Ball-McColm Post 5 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Lowry-Funston Post 1980, the Emporia Camera Club and the Outlook Club.
He is survived by one daughter, Connie Reishus of Plainville; three sons, Gary Gale of Bentonville, Ark.; Terry Ecklund of Overland Park and John Ecklund of Aledo, Texas; 14 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Four brothers, Emil, Francis, Charles and Lee Ecklund, and two sisters, Mildred Taylor and Etta Henderson, died earlier.
The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Grace United Methodist Church. The Rev. Mic McGuire of the church will conduct the service. Burial, with military honors, will be in Memorial Lawn Cemetery. The family will meet friends from 6 to 8 p.m. today at the Roberts-Blue-Barnett Funeral Home.
Memorial contributions to Big Brothers Big Sisters may be sent in care of the funeral home, P.O. Box 175, Emporia, KS 66801.