Gary D. Stufflebeam Obituary

(Taken from the obituary published in the Bloomfield, Iowa newspaper as edited/amended by Craig Foss)

Gary Dean Stufflebeam passed away on April 22, 2022 at his home in Seaside, CA. Gary was born June 4, 1949 in Ottumwa, Iowa to Lyle and Freda Stufflebeam. Gary’s father passed away when Gary was approximately 12 years old.

Gary was a graduate of Davis County High School, class of 1967, where he was the class president. Gary then enrolled at Iowa State University and was a 1971 Engineering Operations graduate of ISU. While Gary was at ISU he was a member of Delta Upsilon Fraternity serving as an officer and was also very active with the ISU Pep Council where he kept his eye on the coed cheerleaders! And Gary was also a waiter at Delta Zeta sorority.

Gary was always a staunch supporter of the ISU Cyclones and proud to be a DU!

After graduation from ISU, Gary enlisted in the US Army where he trained to be a counter-intelligence officer. This training included language school studying Korean. Language school was in Monterey, CA and that is where he met his future wife, Janine Olinger.  While in the Army Gary was stationed in Vietnam, Thailand, and Korea.  While in Korea Gary and Janine were married.

After serving in the US Army, Gary and Janine moved back to the Monterey, CA area where Gary had a 20-year career with Allstate Insurance. After that he worked for Homeland Security.

Gary was very active in his church and was especially dedicated to Prison Ministries where he spent many, many hours trying to help inmates.

Gary is survived by his wife, Janine, and his two children, Micah and Abby. He also is survived by his sisters – Diane Matthews of Ottumwa, IA and Becky Jones of Drakesville, IA. Gary was preceded in death by his daughter, Callie, and his parents. Callie had a serious heart defect as a very young infant and was one of the first infants to receive a heart transplant. Callie actually received two heart transplants – the second when she was four years old. Unfortunately, Callie died after the second transplant in 1987.

Private services were held in Monterey. Cards of condolence may be sent to Janine Stufflebeam, 2015 Mendocino St., Seaside, CA 93955.

I last saw Gary in 2017 at the 50^th year high school class reunion. Gary and Barb were high school classmates along with Mary Kincart! With his fancy yellow Chevy, Gary used to provide transportation for Barb to and from Bloomfield during our college years. They were known to have made occasional stops at the Jaarsma Bakery in Pella to purchase Dutch letters!!

Gary was one of the most decent human beings I have ever met. He was a very caring and stand-up guy. Ron Cue reminded me of an example of this while we were living at the DU house. There was a DU pledge who was admittedly a bit different. This pledge was unfortunately the victim of some harassment at the house. In order to bring that to a stop, Gary chastised the DU actives and defended the pledge by telling the active chapter that’s not how DU’s treat people!

Also, for your info, Gary was a groomsman in our wedding which took place a day before his birthday – June 3. The day after Barb and I were married we got Gary out of bed with a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” over the phone! He was home in Bloomfield at the time and I’m sure his mother really enjoyed rolling him out of bed to take the call!