Bruce Franklin Garnand
https://www.garnandfuneralhomes.com/memorials/bruce-garnand/5253310/index.php
June 15, 1924 - August 10, 2023
Bruce Franklin Garnand died at the age of 99. He grew up in Garden City, a small town in southwest Kansas along the Arkansas River. His parents were Bryant and Edith. Bryant was a businessman, and Edith was a woman ahead of her time.
Once, Bruce floated down the Arkansas River with a couple of high school friends, Fielding Hands and Chester Kneef, when it was flooded. It almost ended in disaster, because of a diversion dam across the river. They survived but didn’t get back to Garden City until after dark.
Bruce worked for a man who farmed a lot of land.
Fortunately because of his agricultural deferment, Bruce entered late into WWII. When he was finally drafted, very unfortunately he was placed in the infantry. The infantry took 80% of the casualties in the Army. Bruce carried a Browning Automatic Rifle and lots of ammunition. He saw about forty-five days of combat in Germany. After Victory-in-Europe Day, he was transferred through the United States, had a thirty-day furlough, and then was scheduled to be deployed for the invasion of Japan. Luckily, when Japan surrendered, Bruce was still in the United States. The Army then shipped him to the Philippines for about one year of occupation.
After discharge from the Army, Bruce attended a local junior college for one year. He then attended Kansas State University in Manhattan for two years, followed by two years at Ohio State University earning a bachelor’s of science in business administration. While there, he met his wife Marilyn Magnun. She was one of only two women in a large class in industrial organization, which she was required to take for her master’s degree in commercial dietetics.
After Bruce graduated, he and Marilyn moved to Garden City. He worked in the Garnand family businesses including a greenhouse, flower shop, furniture store, and funeral home. Bruce and Marilyn had three children: Nanci, Scott, and Patti.
A good friend started a capital stock savings and loan where Bruce served as one of the directors. Because of this experience, in 1962 another firm hired him to start a savings and loan in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was fired thirty days after the savings and loan opened. Marilyn said that he was fired because he was not a yes-man.
Bruce and his family were able to stay in Santa Fe because his father gave him money each month and also loaned him money for investing in real estate. He bought junk houses, cleaned them up, sometimes having to add a bathroom, and sold them with a small down payment under a real estate contract.
Later, Bruce decided to start his own mutual savings and loan. In order to do so, he had to go to court to get the banking commissioner to approve a non-insured savings and loan. The approval process took three years. After obtaining the approval, Bruce opened Security Mutual Savings & Loan. Bruce initially worked for no salary and later when the company could afford it, a low salary. After several years of operation, the company was bought by an Albuquerque savings and loan.
Bruce was a licensed pilot and when he wanted to travel to Garden City, he would rent a 4-passenger Cessna 172 airplane. His family of five would climb into the plane and fly to Garden City, with the three kids in the back seat. Once on a windy landing at Garden City, he was notified that a plane had just flipped over when it turned into a taxiway. Because of this, Bruce decided to land on the tarmac of the airport, and people ran out to hold down the windward wing and push the plane to the safety of the hangar.
Bruce and Marilyn were active with their children, taking them downhill skiing, water skiing, camping, sailing, motor boating, and hiking. When Bruce started taking his family camping they used a small canvas 4-person tent that they all could crowd into. Eventually he bought a pickup with dual wheels and a cab-over camper. Over the years they had a small 9-foot sailboat called a Sea Snark, fishing boats, a 16-foot Hobie Cat, and a nice green boat with an inboard motor that he had to make payments on.
Bruce and Marilyn enjoyed snorkeling and scuba diving. They made over 100 dives in different parts of the Caribbean with a group of people organized by Bruce Winke, who was a physicist from Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Bruce was a voracious reader and he often purchased books in bulk to gift them to family and friends in hopes of both educating and sharing perspectives. Whenever he exhausted his current supply of books, magazines, and newspapers he would read the World Book Encyclopedia.
Bruce was a lifelong active member and supporter of the Methodist Church and one of the founders of the St John’s Methodist Church Foundation in Santa Fe. He was a member of the Rotary Club for about 62 years, first in Garden City, and later in Santa Fe. After he left the club, he was awarded an honorary membership in the Rotary Club.
After a long illness, Bruce’s wife Marilyn died under hospice care at home with Bruce by her side. Later, Bruce met Gretchen Kinzie when she was on her daily walk, but taking a different route than usual. Bruce and Gretchen married and had a very happy life. Gretchen has four children: Hon, Kli, Magon, and Dnae.
Funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, August 18, 2023, at Garnand Funeral Home in Garden City, Kansas with Rev. Jim Akins officiating. Burial will follow at Valley View Cemetery with military graveside rites conducted by the Ft. Riley Honor Guard and the Southwest Kansas Area Veterans Honor Guard.
The family suggests memorials given to the St. John’s Methodist Church Foundation in care of the funeral home.
Condolences may be given at garnandfuneralhomes.com.