John Bruner’s life of volunteer service to Fort Dodge and Webster County got its roots 65 miles away in his hometown of Carroll.

His role model: His father, attorney Robert Bruner.

“My father was extremely involved in the Carroll community – schools, Scouts, chamber of commerce, church,” Bruner recalled. “I just grew up watching him. He never had to verbalize that to me, I just watched how he lived and acted.

“He was a terrific human being. He’s personified perfectly by the old quote, ‘There’s three kinds of people in this old world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder, what happened?'”

Another old quote, “An apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” fits the 77-year-old Bruner to a T.

While his life of service has been slowed down by colon cancer, which he has battled for three years, Bruner is determined “to keep going, and that’s my plan – keep pushing the ball down the field.”

He retired in 2020 from careers in finance and education, providing him time to continue his volunteer work and with his wife, Connie, spoil their seven grandchildren.

“It’s my plan to get healthy and start showing up in person,” Bruner said. “I couldn’t imagine not being involved. One thing about people getting involved in their community, you meet some of the finest people in your town and your county, who are out there serving. It’s not like work. It’s a privilege, a real privilege to serve your church, your community. The rewards are just terrific.”

First, however, you need to define “slowing down.” For Bruner, it means presently he’s “just” serving on the board of the Webster County Crime Stoppers, as a Civil Service Commissioner for the city of Fort Dodge, and on the board of the Fort Dodge Community Foundation and United Way.

His resume of service has also included membership – and leadership roles – in organizations such as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Friendship Haven, Foster Grandparents, Big Brothers, the Hospital Foundation, Holy Trinity Parish and Knights of Columbus.

Bruner said he volunteers because of his love for Fort Dodge and compares it to the love of family and friends.

“When you really, really love them, you’ll do anything for them,” he said. “And it’s the same if you really, really love your community, you really, really love your town. You’ll do anything for them, and I really, really love Fort Dodge.”

Bruner grew up in Carroll – second-oldest of the six children of Robert and Lorraine “Lovey” Bruner. His sister Judy (Mixsell) worked as a medical records librarian and lives in Waverly; brother Brian, nicknamed Snap, worked for the State Department of Revenue in the Property Tax Division and lives in West Des Moines; brother Barry lives in Carroll, where he and brother David are attorneys who work together in the law firm of Bruner, Bruner, Reinhart & Morton, and sister Mary Francis (Egli) worked as an elementary school teacher and lives in Waverly.

“Dad was very active in his church, St. Lawrence in Carroll,” Bruner said. “He was one of the first men in the Sioux City Diocese to be ordained a deacon. He was 72 when he was ordained and served actively until he died at age 93. He was extremely active in the Chamber for years and was recognized as the Chamber’s Citizen of the Year when he was about 70. He served many years on the Kuemper High School Board, St. Lawrence School Board, Boy Scout Board and others. He was Carroll County attorney for 20 some years straight. There was other stuff, but he never bragged about his involvements. He just quietly and deliberately went about his service to his family, church and community.”

Bruner graduated from Carroll Kuemper High School in 1962 and attended the University of South Dakota where at the start of his senior year, he married his high school sweetheart, Connie Schreck, on Sept. 4, 1965.

“She was a country girl and I was the city boy,” he said. “Our first kiss was in the chicken coop on her farm. I was so nervous, but I asked her ‘Can I kiss you?’ She hesitated for just a moment then said, ‘OK’.”

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from USD, the two moved to Storm Lake where he taught at St. Mary’s High School. He served as head basketball and track coach in 1966-67. They returned to Carroll when he was hired at Kuemper to teach history and coach freshman-sophomore football, freshman basketball and serve as assistant varsity track coach.

The Bruners moved to Fort Dodge in 1969 when he was hired as dean of students and vice principal at St. Edmond High School (while taking graduate courses toward an eventual master’s in education degree from Iowa State University). He remained active in coaching as an assistant to Bill Kibby in football, assistant to Dick Wiedenfeld in basketball, and to Kibby in track. Fort Dodge’s Catholic schools were consolidated in 1975, and Bruner was named principal of the newly formed Sacred Heart Junior High.

After seven years as principal, he retired from education in 1982 and joined the Union Trust and Savings Bank in charge of marketing and public relations. He became licensed to do nonbanking work – life insurance, annuities, mutual funds – and in 1986 joined the Flaherty Group (John Flaherty and his sons Mick and Jim), part of Central Life Assurance Co. It later became Central Financial Group and Bruner worked there until retiring in August 2020.

“In my financial services profession,” he said, “I realized my client’s concern for safe, dependable investments. I assured them that I was a conservative old German and would not recommend or put them in anything that I personally wasn’t in or my family. I told them they could look at my portfolio at any time. I wanted their trust and I wanted them sleeping good at night. In all my years in the business only two clients ask to see my portfolio and I was happy to share it with them. I sure met a lot of interesting and wonderful people while practicing and built a lot of very good friendships. I love all those good folks just as I love my former students!

“But my years in education were professionally the greatest years of my life. You don’t realize how you impact lives – the interaction with students, watching them grow up, full of life and full of memories. There’s just something so very, very special about it. If I had to do it all over again, I’d be a teacher and educator for all my career.”

In 1984, Connie and John Bruner and their good friends Elaine and Denny Huss were part of a group that formed one of the city’s most popular and successful fundraising events – the Friends of St. Edmond Ball.

Huss said the event was modeled after a Friends of Heelan Ball at Sioux City Heelan High School, where Elaine (who died last May) had graduated.

There were skeptics, he said: “There were people who said, no way you’re going to make any money having a dance.” The two couples chaired the first event and met every Thursday night for a year to organize the first one. It was worth their efforts: 1,500 attended the first Ball at the Starlight, charged $25 a couple, and the event netted $35,000.

To date, the fundraising event has raised a net of $8,646,000 for the benefit of St. Edmond Catholic Schools. Organizers were later invited to help Algona Garrigan, Carroll Kuemper and LeMars Gehlen in forming their own Friends Ball.

In 1982, Bruner was among a group that included Mick Flaherty and Mary Eggers that formed Webster County Crime Stoppers – the first Crime Stoppers group to be established in Iowa. In its partnership with citizens and law enforcement, the chapter has directly assisted with the capture of over 1,700 wanted criminals and awarded $180,000 in reward money.

Terry Cook, who owns Candies & More on Central Avenue, is president of the chapter and was a student at Sacred Heart Junior High when Bruner was principal.

“John is a fine man,” Cook said. “I’ve always gotten along well with him – even when I was in school.”

“Hundreds and hundreds of citizens in Webster County and Fort Dodge have been involved over the years,” Bruner said. “It pulls the community together and helps provide a new regard and respect for law enforcement – our police officers, sheriff’s deputies.”

Bruner is pleased that next generations of Fort Dodgers are active in volunteer work.

“Kids I taught in school are on boards, serving – I tell them, you don’t come here to sit on boards, you come to serve on boards. I see these young people in their 40s and 50s who are out there doing it, getting the job done.”

Another of them is Kirk Yung, who was a seventh grader at Sacred Heart Junior High when Bruner was its principal. Yung, president and CEO of Green Belt Bank & Trust in Iowa Falls and a Fort Dodge resident, has served with Bruner on the Community Foundation and United Way board, Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Corpus Christi parish council.

“To me, there are three things stand out about John,” Yung said. “His leadership, his character and his, last but not least, faith and family. These are things I’ve always really admired about John and kind of looked up to him as a role model. He’s always been a very steady rock of the community.”

Bruner is a lifelong sports fan and worked as a high school basketball official for many years, often teamed with Mick Flaherty and Fran Long.

“Lots of exciting memories,” he said, including the time when he and Flaherty needed police assistance in an area town when several irate fans confronted them on their calls.

Both of the Bruners’ daughters and their families live in Clive, a suburb of Des Moines, in houses across the street from one another.

Christine, a teacher and founder and chairman of The Veil Removed, and her husband Joel McGruder, a financial planner, have three children: Joel, Addie and Mason. Jennifer, a homemaker and part-time financial adviser, and her husband Dan Nielsen, Cybersecurity Sales Tech Rep. For Government and Education, have four children: Gabbi, Sophie, John and Dan.

“Both daughters, their husbands and adult kids are very involved in church, school and community,” Bruner said. “So proud of them! Don’t know where they get the time.”

Like his mother was with his dad, Connie Bruner is active in volunteer work, particularly with school and church.

“It’s a family thing,” Bruner said, “just like it was for me when I was growing up in Carroll.”

For years, he said, their daughters insisted he write about “all the fun, funny and crazy things” that he and his brother Brian (nicknamed Snap) and their friends did while growing up in Carroll back in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s.

Bruner did just that – and he has authored – ”Me & Snap” (2009), ”Bonk, Monsters and Miracles” (2010) and ”More of And The Best of Me & Snap ”(2017).

“These are not novels,” he said. “They are a collection of individual stories that can be read in five-10 minutes. You want to laugh, these true stories will get you going.”