Robert Jerome Kurtenbach

y father was born on his parents' farm on Sep 19, 1920 in Herington, Kansas, and he died at Indian Creek Skilled Nursing in Overland Park, Kansas, on Aug 4, 2002. When he was 21, he was trained at Fort Riley, Kansas and went to England in 1942 for training. Because he was color blind, he was unable to be a pilot which was a great disappointment to him. He was in the 6th Airdrome attached to the 1st Army in Europe during WWII until June 1945 when the war ended. He was a corporal, a sharpshooter, repaired airplanes in his "off time" in the Army-AF, and was in all the major battles in the European front, including D-Day on Utah Beach, in battles at St. Lo and St. Mere Eglise, France; he was in Belgium, Germany, France, England and probably other countries. The fact that he couldn't swim, along with many other soldiers landing on Normandy beaches, made a terrible impact on him and cemented the memories of trying to keep from drowning upon landing at Utah Beach. When he returned to Kansas right after the war, he re-met my mother with whom he had graduated from high school (but they didn't "run in the same crowd"). He married Enid Shirley Haire in Feb 4, 1946. My brother, Larry Jan, was born on Jul 17, 1948, in Wichita, Kansas, and I was born on Jun 19, 1950 in Herington, Kansas. Our parents lived in Wichita from 1948 through 1957, when he was laid off from Boeing where he worked with my Uncle Duane Main, and the house they bought on 22nd St was foreclosed on. My brother and I lived with our grandparents in Herington, Kansas, until my father got back on his feet at Boeing in Seattle, Washington, where we moved in 1958. We were only there a short time, less than a year, and my mother returned to Herington, Kansas, with my brother and I in tow. They were divorced, but were got back together again at about 1959 in Kansas City. We moved to Merriam, Kansas, to a house they had bought at 5915 Hardy Street where they lived until their deaths. Dad suffered from the horrendous memories and nightmares throughout his life of his war time experiences which I had him chronicle throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In later years, he would talk about the war but not in detail. He was proud, though, of his service, and I know that he would have loved to have gone to some of the veterans' functions during the 1990s. He did attend one in Johnson County, Kansas, but he destroyed the newspaper article and his photograph because he was so embarrassed over his appearance (he thought he looked old and fat). I will transcribe them to add to his page. While my father had only a high school education, he was a smart man who loved driving and taking road trips, exploring, and spending time with my mother and my brother and I. He was the "well-intended" handyman who really was not detail-oriented, but he tried! My father was my hero, a wonderful man who was only human with human frailties. He struggled with various jobs while we lived in Wichita, Kansas, including as gas station attendant, milkman, Boeing (laid off 1958 in Wichita and left in 1959 in Seattle), and finally in the late 1950s began his work at Smith & Loveless in Lenexa, Kansas, as customer service representative where he remained until his retirement at an early age in the late 1970s. Dad worked for the Merriam Police Department as a crossing guard at my school, Crestview Elementary School in the 1990s and later for Meals on Wheels and Senior Services where he was a handyman. My mother and he traveled around the country somewhat and spent time going to visit relatives, searching for my mother's father's relatives (he was an orphan), collecting antiques, going to concerts. When I came home to help take care of my parents in Jan 2000, I found my father had developed worsening dementia, and we could no longer take care of him at home. Mom and I were devoted to Dad, and while I returned to San Francisco in Mar 2002, I still maintained close contact, returned the week before he died, flew back to California and then back again that next week when he died several days after I returned home. Mom and I were with him when he died at Indian Creek Skilled Nursing in Overland Park, Kansas, from a massive stroke. I donated all of my father's WWII mementos to the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, Kansas, in Sep 2019 and received a Deed of Sale (26 pages) in May 2022. I am awaiting a signed copy to be returned to me.