James “Jim Alfred Dunbar entered into his rest on Wednesday, October 15, 2014 at the age of 91 years, 7 months. Born March 20, 1923 in Wichita, Kansas, Jim descended from pioneer stock. His paternal grandparents took part in the historic “Sooner” land rush in Oklahoma, and the family staked their claim in Mooreland, Oklahoma. Jim’s maternal grandparents were one of the first one hundred residents of Wichita, Kansas and owned and operated a hotel there. Jim was the son of George Alfred Dunbar of Mooreland, Oklahoma and the former Beulah Lucy Kistler of Wichita, Kansas.
Jim was a WWII veteran who served in the US Army 5th and 13th Air Force in five US states and in the Pacific, specializing in airborne navigation and radio systems. Jim attended Wichita University, Kansas State College and Georgia State College and majored in Aerospace Engineering.
Even as a young man, he had an enterprising nature and since he loved moving pictures, he set up a movie theater in the basement of the family home and charged his friends for admission and popcorn. After WWII ended, Jim managed theaters in Topeka and Wichita, Kansas, and owned and managed two movie theaters: The Rex Theater in Maysville, Oklahoma and the Roxy in Wichita, Kansas. At an early age, he listened to a radio program featuring the pipe organ in the Miller Theatre in Wichita, Kansas. He fell in love with the pipe organ. In 1956 he taught himself to play an organ, and continued to play the various home organs he owned until just recently. He was very much interested in the preservation of the few theatre pipe organs that remain and enjoyed travelling to theatre pipe organ conventions and concerts. He was a member of the American Theatre Organ Society since 1974 and was a past president of the NorCal (San Francisco Bay area) Theater Organ Society.
After selling the Roxy Theatre, Jim went to work for one year as an Aerospace Engineer for Boeing Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas, and then for the GELAC-Lockheed Aircraft Company in Marietta, Georgia; Sunnyvale, California; and in 1983 transferred from California to the Lockheed Austin Division located in Austin, Texas. He retired in 1988 after 36 years’ service with the corporation.
He was a Scottish Rite Mason for over fifty years, having joined the Masonic Lodge in Smyrna, Georgia in 1956, advanced to the 32nd degree, and after moving to Austin attended the local lodge. Jim attended the Presbyterian Church and other churches throughout his life, but this year joined the Bastrop Seventh-Day Adventist Church after having attended there for a number of years.
He was preceded in death by his wife Connie Keever Dunbar who passed away February 17, 2005 after 58 years of marriage. The couple had no children. He is survived by his loving companion and caretaker, Reva Truitt, his brother Daniel K. Dunbar and sister-in-law Jean Dunbar, brother-in-law Col. Charles Bradford Keever USMC (Ret.) and sister-in-law Beverly Deepe Keever, sister-in-law Shirley Keever Harmon, two nieces, four nephews, and an extended “family” of many friends.
The family will receive friends from 1:00 P.M. to 2:00 P.M., Sunday, October 26, 2014 at Cook-Walden/Forest Oaks Memorial Park Mausoleum Chapel followed by A Celebration of Jim’s Life at 2:00 P.M. with Fred Snell, Pastor officiating along with Military Honors and Masonic Rites rendered. Entombment will follow the services at Cook-Walden/Forest Oaks Mausoleum.
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