Richard Loonan
 — Corning

Richard “Dick” Raymond Loonan, 83, of Corning died May 14, 2011, at Alegent Health Mercy Hospital in Corning.

Celebration of life services will be 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 18, at the First Presbyterian Church in Corning. The Rev. Ken Rummer will officiate. Visitation with family present will be 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday with a prayer beginning at 7 p.m. at Pearson-Coen-Beaty Family Funeral Service, 701 Seventh St., Corning. Interment will be in Oakland Cemetery in Quincy. Memorials may be directed to "Save the Carbon Hall" fund and/or Hospice of Southwest Iowa, Corning. Online condolences may be left at www.pearsonfuneralhomes.com.

Richard “Dick” Raymond Loonan, son of George V. and Betty Loonan, was born Nov. 7, 1927, in Waterloo.

Dick graduated from high school at Hudson Consolidated School in 1945. He received a bachelor of science degree in agriculture from Iowa State University in 1949.

After graduation, he worked for ISU Extension Service for one year before returning to Hudson to join the family farming operation.

In 1950, Dick married Jean Copeman of Grundy Center.

Dick was a charter member of Hudson Community Church and serving as chairman of the board when he moved from the community in 1958.

He moved to Tama, where he taught GI on the farm training and farmed.

In 1962, Dick moved to Gowrie in Webster County to become a bank vice president and loan officer. While in banking, he graduated from ISU Ag Credit School and Graduate School of Banking, Madison, Wis. He served as president of Webster County Bankers and was chairman of the Livestock Industrial Committee of the Iowa Bankers Association.

While at Gowrie, he also was secretary treasurer of Gowrie Community Development Corporation.

The Loonan family moved to their farm north of Corning in Adams County in 1972. For the past 37 years, Dick and his daughter Judy have been known throughout the Midwest for their beef seedstock operation.

Dick is survived by his former wife and lifelong best friend Jean Loonan; children, Patrick Loonan, Judy Loonan and Linda (husband Tony) Mullen, all of Corning; grandchildren, Sadie (husband Jason) Kruse of Indianola, Laura (husband Justin) Cooper of Prescott, Brent Mullen and Hanna Mullen of Corning; great-grandchildren, Lane and Lillie Kruse and Emma and Carson Cooper.