David Marshall Bland

Dave was born in Springfield, Missouri, on June 5th, 1939, and moved to Kansas City as a young child. He graduated from Paseo High School in 1957, where he was active in football, baseball, and track. He was a member of National Honor Society, Kansas City A’s Booster Club, and voted Best Personality on the Senior Ballot.

He received scholarship offers for baseball and academics and chose to play baseball at the University of Missouri. After one year at MU, he transferred to Central Missouri State University to pursue a degree in Secondary Education, where he met his future wife, Carol Jean Shikles. At CMSU he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He continued playing baseball throughout college and when he was 21, Dave was proud to play on the first 3&2 team to win the city baseball championship over the Ban Johnson Collegiate League, with his older brother Vick serving as manager. David earned a Bachelor of Science in Education and later received his master’s degree in 1962.

After college, Dave taught at East High School in Kansas City, Nallwood Junior High in Shawnee Mission, and later taught at Rockhurst High School, where he coached multiple sports, including Junior Varsity football for Al Davis. After several years of teaching, he was recruited to the pharmaceutical industry and worked for Schering-Plough and later Carter-Wallace, where he built a successful 35-year career before retiring.

Dave was also an avid outdoorsman and conservationist. He loved hunting and fishing and excelled at both. He enjoyed the outdoors and spent fall and winter hunting duck, quail, and pheasant. He was a skilled fly fisherman who tied his own flies, spending time on rivers catching mountain trout in Montana, Idaho, and Colorado. Later in life, he enjoyed crappie fishing at Clinton Lake and made his own jigs and lures.

Dave was preceded in death by his wife, Carol (Shikles) Bland, his parents, Harry Vickery Bland, and Alma (Williams) Bland. He is survived by his brother Vick Bland and his wife Gail (McBride) Bland. Dave is also survived by his daughter, Denise (Bland) Gutierrez and her husband Marcel; grandson Stevan Gutierrez and his wife Dani (Brown) Gutierrez, great-granddaughters Hadley and Marcie; granddaughter Carly (Gutierrez) Beckett and her husband Cooper, great-grandsons Wesley and Brady; his son, Mark David Bland and his wife Beth (Winslow) Bland, daughter, Emily (Bland) Murphy and her husband Kevin, with a great-granddaughter, Isabela, due in August; and his youngest granddaughter Hannah Jean Bland.

Dave was a devoted, loving, and supportive father and grandfather. His witty sense of humor, brilliant recall of history and fascinating stories made him fun to be around. He will remain fondly in our hearts forever and be greatly missed.

Services will be Thursday, April 23, 2026, at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, 11822 Holmes Road, Kansas City, MO 64131. Visitation will begin at 9:30 am, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 am. Friends and family are invited to a luncheon reception immediately following Mass downstairs at St. Thomas More. Family will have a private burial.

In lieu flowers, the family requests donations be made to Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation. Individuals who wish to make a memorial donation may do so through Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation website at https://mochf.org/donate-online. Donors can select a specific area or program—such as youth hunting or fishing programs—from the Designation drop-down menu, and the donation will be directed accordingly. Donations may also be mailed to the Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation, P.O. Box 366, Jefferson City, MO 65102. We encourage donors to make sure to note that their donation is made in memory of David M. Bland. There is a section on the online donation form to do this, and they can write the information in the memo line if the donor is mailing a check.