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Obit: David Benner Birt

by jmaloni

•Taken from the March 21 Dispatch

Tue, Mar 25th 2014 05:05 pm

Dec. 23, 1928 - March 11, 2014

David Benner Birt, of Grand Island, passed away on Tuesday, March 11, 2014, in Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center at the age of 85.

He was born Dec. 23, 1928 in Madison, Wis., and graduated from Madison West High School in 1946. After moving to St. Paul, Minn., he graduated from University of Minnesota in Minneapolis with a Masters of Arts in public administration. Upon completion of an internship with the State of New York, he came to Grand Island, and was employed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as a community planner in the Buffalo office from 1970 to 1999.

David was active as a volunteer in local town planning in Minnesota, and served as the moderator of the last town meeting of the new City of Cottage Grove, Minn., in 1966.

He served in the U.S. Army on active duty during the Korean War, and the U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard (Special Forces), retiring as a chief warrant officer. In recent years, he was active in American Legion Post 1346 on Grand Island, and the Grand Island Disabled American Veterans.

He spent more than 50 years with the Boy Scouts of America, earning his Eagle Scout rank and being awarded the Silver Beaver. Other interests included history, politics, parliamentary law and procedure, music, reading, canoeing and sailing. Most recently, he has studied maps, particularly those of Grand Island.

David is survived by his wife of 56 years, Barbara, three sons, Kevin (Lorie), Patrick (Anne) and Jeffrey (Lori), nine grandchildren, his brother, E. Michael (Ann), of Eden Prairie, Minn., four nieces and a nephew, and grandnieces and nephews.

Friends may call Friday, March 21, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Kaiser Funeral Home, 1950 Whitehaven Road. Funeral services will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church - Historic Trinity. An interment service will be held at a later date. Flowers gratefully declined; memorials may be made to American Legion Post 1346 or Friends of the Grand Island Memorial Library.

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