Eugene Stramel

EUGENE "GENE" STRAMEL Memorial Mass for Cortez resident Eugene "Gene" Stramel will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, August 23 at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church. Inurnment will follow at Summit Ridge Cemetery. Military honors will be provided by the Ute Mountain American Legion Post #75. Gene was born June 28, 1922 in Topeka, Kans. the son of Clem and Anna M. (Gibler) Stramel. He passed away at Southwest Memorial Hospital on Monday, August 16, 2010 at the age of 88. Gene served his country in the U.S. Marines serving from 1943 to 1946 during World War II. At the time of his discharge Gene held the rank of Corporal. He married Loretta M. Baalman on May 31, 1949 in Grinnell, Kans., sharing 61 years of marriage. Gene worked many years in the oil industry working in geophysical surveying safety. He proudly claimed to be the first employee and surveyor hired by the Cedar Bluff Dam project in Kansas. A hard working man, Gene enjoyed his job. In his free time, Gene enjoyed working with wood, he gave of his time freely volunteering and visiting veterans in the local nursing homes. Surviving Gene are his wife, Loretta Stramel of Cortez; and his children, Mary Ann Dew and husband, Maurice of Ft. Worth, Tex., Philip Stramel and wife, Trudy of California, Denise Stramel and husband, Keith Buderus of Lyons, Colo., John Stramel and wife, Stacy of Lewis, Rita Stramel of Hays, Kans., and Walter Stramel and wife, Christine of Cortez. Gene also leaves behind seven grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and his siblings, Irene Walters of Kansas City, Kans., James Stramel of Hays, Kans., and Frank Stramel of Glen Elder, Kans. Gene was preceded in death by his parents; and by his siblings, Bernard Stramel, Raymond Stramel, Rita Schmidtberger, Clem Stramel, and Gib Stramel.