Leroy Paul Brunner Sr.

Colonel Leroy Paul Brunner (USAF ret.) has passed away. He was 99 years young. Roy was funny, charming, strong, vulnerable, kind, brilliant and curious about everything. He loved life and all it had to offer.

He was born at home near the Colorado River in La Grange, Texas to Molly and Paul Brunner. His first language was Czech. When he was six years old, his family moved to Weimar, Texas where he attended St. Michael’s Catholic School.

Roy married the love of his life, Betty Holzmann, and they lived a life of adventure. They would have celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in December.

Roy and Betty had four children-Michele (Mimi), Paul, Mariana and Bettina whom he often enjoyed tormenting by telling stories we thought were true. For example, we eventually figured out that our mother was actually not The Yellow Rose of Texas and our next move was not to a town that had a swimming pool full of Coca-Cola and a comic book factory across the street from our new house. “Mom, is that true?” was a frequent question around our house.

Roy’s childhood was busy. He worked in his father’s general store, Brunner, Banse and Dippel (BB&D), delivered newspapers, shined shoes and was a server at Mass, usually barefoot. He started an egg business and attempted a food delivery business to augment his family’s income.

He picked cotton on his uncle’s farm during his summer vacation. Pickers would spend the day on their knees pulling a 20-foot-long sack behind them all morning and afternoon and were paid a penny a pound. Sometimes he could make a dollar in one day. He was upset when his uncle weighed his pickings and deducted five cents for the five-pound weight of the bag. That was the equivalent of a double dip ice cream cone.

It was usually hot and humid, but most evenings the land breeze from the Gulf of Mexico would reach the cotton fields with a cooling wind. One of his memories from that time was his aunt sweetly singing “Over the Rainbow,” a song from the Judy Garland film that had just been released.

His favorite job as a kid, though, was rewinding movie reels at the Palace Theater in Weimar. He didn’t get paid, but he got to see a lot of films for free. He had a lifelong love of movies.

During the war, Weimar established an observational command post on the second floor of city hall with a telephone that was monitored 24 hours a day. Volunteers were responsible for calling army headquarters if they saw any German or Japanese aircraft flying overhead. Roy always took his dad’s shift. Fortunately, he observed no South Texas invasion and was able to enjoy reading donated magazines and listening to the radio during his shifts.

When Roy was ten years old, he and his mother took the Katy Flyer up to the 1936 Texas Centennial celebration in Dallas. He was wide-eyed at all the attractions that he’d never imagined while growing up in the small Texas town where he lived. So began his life of wanderlust.

Roy joined the seminary at age 12. He later decided to serve his faith as a lay person and enlisted in the Army Air Corp in 1946 as a private. It was to be a two-year commitment so he could earn money to pay for college. The two-year commitment turned out to be a 31-year career as an Air Force meteorologist and eventual commander of the Air Force Data Systems Design Center, the nascent Air Force computer headquarters.

He began his service career with radar school in Biloxi, Mississippi and weather forecasting school in Rantoul, Illinois. His first station was Nome, Alaska, which he quipped was a snow lover’s paradise.

Roy spent the Korean War as a weather forecaster on the Alaskan Aleutian Islands of Shemya and Amchitka, helping expedite the movement of American troops to Korea.

He returned to Amchitka Island in 1965 as the lead weather forecaster for Operation Longshot, an 80-kiloton underground nuclear test conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission. Project Longshot was an exercise to determine whether an underground atomic blast could be detected around the world. The US had signed an atomic test ban treaty with the Russians and Congress wanted to learn whether any violation of the treaty could be detected. Roy spent many hours poring over weather charts to find a favorable forecast for the detonation. Project Longshot was a success. Roy attributed his involvement in the project to equal parts hard work and luck.

Roy’s Air Force career took him and his family on many moves, including four years in England and a yearlong assignment for him in Saigon, Vietnam. From 1967-1968 he served as the commander of Southeast Asian Weather Central, providing vital support for the war effort.

When he returned from Vietnam, Roy was assigned command of the 24th Weather Squadron at Randolph AFB in San Antonio. He was later transferred to Offutt AFB in Omaha, Nebraska as Third Weather Wing Commander. Upon retirement in 1977, he joined Collins Rockwell, where he retired as a systems analyst in 1994.

Roy was a perpetual student. He graduated from Florida State University with a BS in math, a BS in meteorology and an MS in math. In 1967 he graduated from the US Air Force War College prior to being assigned to Vietnam. He later obtained an MS in management from the University of Nebraska and completed the University of Dallas four-year biblical studies program.

He was active in Toastmasters International, investment clubs and several Retired Officers organizations.

Roy was the world’s best grandfather to Wyatt, Mariana (Ana), Lilia and Alexander (Jad). They too would eventually realize the “inaccuracy” of his stories. By the way, a good way to tell was that his eyes twinkled and his nostrils flared.

A lifelong Catholic, Roy volunteered a great deal of his time to his beloved church wherever we lived. He was a longtime member of the Knights of Columbus, the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, Circle of Friends and was a lector at Mass at St. Joseph’s Church for over 40 years.

He and Paul faithfully delivered Meals on Wheels together for many years on their monthly route. When Roy was in his mid-90s, he knocked on the door of a client who was much younger. The client looked at him and joked, “I should be delivering Meals on Wheels to YOU.”

During his later years, Roy loved attending Judy’s chair exercise class at Lifetime Fitness in Garland. The special people there always had a chair and equipment waiting for him. He and Paul enjoyed the many friends they met.

Wyatt and Monica gifted Roy a subscription to Storyworth a few years back. Once he started writing stories from the weekly prompts, he took off. His book, A Collection of Life Stories, is an interesting reflection of life growing up in Texas during the Great Depression and way beyond.

Roy was preceded in death by his parents, Molly and Paul Brunner, his brother Monsignor James Brunner and his sister Elaine Brunner Drozd and brother-in-law Robert Drozd.

He is survived by his wife, the former Betty Holzmann; daughter Mimi and husband Dick Worrel; son Paul Brunner; daughter Mariana and husband Armel; daughter Bettina Brunner and husband Ahmed Loukili. His grandchildren include his grandson Wyatt and his wife Monica and his grandson Jad. His granddaughters are Ana and Lilia. Roy’s first great granddaughter will be born in February, 2027.

He is also survived by beloved nephews Jim and Gene Drozd and their families and his Holzmann family nieces and nephews.

We thank Paul for his selfless, loving care of Roy over the past several years and are grateful to his friends and caregivers Josey Vineyard, Aida Lenardduzzi, and Nietta Wooten and to visiting nurse Siavash (Stan) Rastaghi. They contributed greatly to his quality of life. They are family.

The rosary for Roy will be at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 600 S. Jupiter Rd, Richardson Texas at 10 am Thursday, September 3rd, followed by a funeral Mass at 10:30 am. Burial will be Friday, September 4th at 11:15 am at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery, 2000 Mountain Creek Pkwy, Dallas, TX 75211.

Roy’s quick wit and caring, fun-loving personality will be sorely missed. He is at peace, but it’s hard to imagine a world without him in it.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to Camp Sweeney, the wonderful North Texas camp for children with Type 1 diabetes; the American Research Foundation for Nut Allergies, which works to fund medical research to cure nut allergies and eliminate cross-contamination risks; Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church in Richardson,Texas or to a charity of your choice.