Garland Defoe Gunther

Garland Defoe Gunther

Garland peacefully passed away at Porter’s Hospice at the age of 94 on Sunday, March 30th, having lived a full and productive life. He will be laid to rest at Fort Logan Cemetery on Friday, April 4, 2014, at 10:30 am. A grave-side service will be held in his remembrance.

A native Coloradoan, Garland was the third son born to Frank Earl and Nellie Faye Gunther in Pueblo, CO on February 16, 1920. He had two older brothers, Luther and Eugene. He spent his early years in Penrose, CO working on a farm and playing in the trees of an apple orchard. He moved to Denver as a young boy and enjoyed sports including football and track at South High School.

Following graduation, he joined the Army Air Corp during World War II and served as a Flight Engineer on a B29 in the South Pacific where he was credited for adding a modification to the engines to improve performance. He returned from the war interested in all things mechanical and obtained a Mechanical Engineering Degree from the University of Denver. While in college he met, fell in love, and married Theelda Loree Shafer. Later they raised a family of four children.

Garland enjoyed a productive and varied carrier as an Engineer, working in the Aerospace industry at Martin Marietta on the Titan Rocket Program, working for the National Bureau of Standards, and for the U.S. Government at Rocky Flats and the Rocky Mountain Arsenal.

He retired from the government to spend time with his family and to pursue his life-long interests in the outdoors, especially hunting, fishing, and camping. He was an amazing resource for information on all the backroads, streams, and lakes of his beloved Colorado mountains. He was a man of quiet faith and a life-long member of the University Park United Methodist Church working regularly as an usher.

Garland will be greatly missed by his wife, Theelda, four children; Doug (Priscilla), Judy (Alan), Marc and Phil (Becky), eight grandchildren; Jason, Carinne, Wade, Jolei, Denae, Hannah, Tim, Ian and six great grandchildren; Trista, Colette, Makayla, Abigail, and two great grandchildren on the way. He was preceded in death by his parents and two brothers.