Dwight G. Bender

March 22, 1927 – October 8, 2009

Dwight G. Bender, 82, of Kalona, Iowa, died Thursday, October 8, 2009, at Pleasantview Home in Kalona. Celebration of Life Services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, October 11, 2009, at West Union Mennonite Church with Pastors David Boshart and Martha Yoder officiating. Burial was in West Union Cemetery. Visitation will be from 2 – 8 p.m., Saturday, October 10, 2009, in Yoder-Powell Funeral Home in Kalona, where the family will be present from 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m..

A memorial fund has been established for Pleasantview Home or West Union Mennonite Church. Yoder-Powell Funeral Home and Cremation Service in Kalona was in charge of the arrangements. Messages and tributes may be left at www.powellfuneralhomes.com under obituaries.

Dwight G. Bender was born March 22, 1927, in Iowa City, Iowa, to George S. and Sarah M. (Eash) Bender and graduated from Hesston Academy in 1944. June 27, 1948, he married Henrietta June Hochstetler at Lower Deer Creek Mennonite Church. The couple lived in rural Wellman where Dwight farmed and delivered L.P. for Home Gas Company, retiring in 1995. Following marriage the couple moved to Kalona. Dwight was a member of West Union Mennonite Church, where he held various positions over the years.

Survivors include four children, Julia Bender, San Francisco, California; Gloria (Gay) Widmer, Washington, Iowa; Donovan (Karen) Bender, Wellman; and Beth Bender, San Diego, California; four grandchildren, Nicole (Nathan) Nikkel, Pella, Iowa; Amy Widmer, Washington; and Timothy and Tobyn Bender, Wellman; three great-grandchildren, Leah, Makayla and Blake Timothy Nikkel, Pella, Iowa; and one brother, Clayton Bender, Phoenix, Arizona.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, January 24, 2003.