Ralph Edwin Bunde was born February 13, 1917, the son of Herman and Eliza Kumm Bunde. He died on Sunday, March 14, 2010, at Eventide Lutheran Home in Denison, Iowa, at the age of ninety-three.
Ralph was born in South Shore, South Dakota, and received his education in rural school. After his father died, he went to work on farms. He was able to handle horses and worked his way to Minnesota.
On September 23, 1939, he was united in marriage to Edith Jeckell in Storm Lake, Iowa. The couple was blessed with the birth of three children. They moved to Sac County where he continued to farm. He farmed most of his life and also began working at the Corn Belt Packing Plant, and then IBP, as a builder, where he continued to work after it was completed. The couple moved to the Denison area and later settled in Dow City.
He was a loving husband, father and grandfather. He was an outdoors man who enjoyed hunting pheasants, and fishing for Northerns in Minnesota. He liked baseball.
He was preceded in death by his parents; three brothers: Virgil at birth, Ray and David; two sisters: Ila Eckert and Ruby Boyd; one sister-in-law, Doris Bunde. Survivors include his wife, Edith of Dow City, Iowa; three sons: Francis Bunde of Dow City; Michael Bunde and his wife, Irene of Denison; Philip Bunde and his wife, Brenda of Eagle Lake, Minnesota; three grandchildren: Chris, James and Tonya; three step grandchildren: Beth, Heather and Philip; two great-grandchildren: Alaina and Lance; one brother, Cecil Bunde of Watertown, South Dakota; one sister-in-law, Betty Bunde; other relatives and friends.