IN MEMORIAM

EXPANDED EULOGIES

“In Memoriam” listings are expanded paid obituaries, phrased as the family requests, and may include enhanced information or photographs that might not fit within free death notices.

Alvin Kroupa

Funeral Mass for Alvin Joseph Kroupa, 83, who passed away Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025, will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, at Holy Family Parish, St. Mark’s Catholic Church, Marion.

Rosary will be prayed at 10 a.m. at the church. Visitation will be 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday Aug. 7, 2025, at Yazel-Megli Funeral Home, Marion. He will be laid to rest in Marion Cemetery.

Alvin was born Feb. 5, 1943, in Hillsboro to Josephine Kroupa. Alvin liked to say he was a ‘’43 model.’

He was the eldest of seven children and had to shoulder much of the patriarchal roles and duties for his family as a young boy.

He was proud of his time working on the Ferrel ranch with Jim Ferrel during his early high school years to help support his mom and siblings.

He especially remembered being proud that Mr. Ferrel trusted him to drive the 100+ miles back from Great Bend to Lincolnville at just 13 or 14 years old.

He attended school in Lincolnville until a new school opened and was then a member of the second senior class to graduate from Centre High School in 1961. 

After high school, he continued to farm, drive trucks, and work in oil fields. Those oil fields helped introduce him to Barbara Base, and they were married Aug 1, 1964. Alvin passed away two days after their 61st anniversary.

Unlike his own father, Alvin sought out the responsibility of fatherhood. Having already helped to raise his siblings and unable to conceive their own children, Alvin and Barbara chose to adopt their daughter, Kelli, and son, Jamie, at birth.

Kelli and Jamie will tell you they had the hardest-working and strongest man they knew as a father, that he could do or build just about anything (necessity being the mother of invention), and that he chose them.

After marriage, he drove for Riddle Quarry and then helped build Marion Dam.

He would tell stories of running a concrete truck overnight and tying steel girders in the dam. It was dangerous work, with at least one co-worker losing his life while building.

Alvin began driving trucks with AMPI in 1973 and did so for 25 years until the plant closed. At one point, he was recognized for logging well over a million accident-free miles, of which he was proud.

He primarily hauled milk but sometimes would get an ice cream run, which occasionally resulted in a tub of Baskin-Robbins making its way home to his kids!

Barrel-chested, ox-strong, and with an affinity for a good truck stop buffet, he gained the CB handle / nickname “Big Al,” and it stuck for life.

He drove for several other outfits for another eight to 10 years before getting off the road for good.

The kids have great memories of going on trips in a semi with their dad to areas like Wisconsin, Illinois, and Tennessee, to name a few.

Taking them was against company regulations, so he would have to sneak them into the truck so as not to get caught, which just added to the fun.

Alvin’s kids watched him and their mom build up two farms in his lifetime, all with undersized and overworked equipment.

Bartering dozer work for pipe and sucker rod, he built miles of pipe fence and corrals. He transformed the landscape on both farms with waterways and terraces, and he made many a tree row and even a railroad disappear.

He built all the ponds his kids remember swimming in. He built all of this while also being on the road more than full-time.

Alvin loved his Gelbvieh cattle. He called them his “red cows.” He took great pleasure in growing and genetically improving his herd.

He typically was pretty well-natured. Few things, like a determined cow with her own plan, could make the angry “bohunk” come out in their dad .

In his later years, he enjoyed being a 4th Degree member of Knights of Columbus and serving in that regard.

He was proud to host walkers for the last night of the Father Kapaun pilgrimage, with the group walking from Wichita to Pilsen.

He loved to sit on his south porch and wait so he could see the line of 200 to 300 or more walkers as they crossed a bridge and headed north up K-256 to his farm.

The sight of 100+ tents on his yard and how the group always cleaned up every single piece of trash always amazed him.

He overcame his own rough childhood to provide a great one for his kids. Thank you for everything, Dad!

Alvin was preceded in death by his mother, Josephine, and his brother, Gene.

He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Barbara; by his daughter, Kelli Savage and her husband, Randy, of Florence, and their children, Seth and Laura; and by his son, Jamie Kroupa, and his wife, Erica, and children Abbie, Alex, and Ashton of Shawnee.

Memorials to the Father Kaplan Legacy Fund or Good Shepherd Hospice are suggested.