Zach, LeRoy (Lee)

LeRoy (Lee) Zach, 85, of Davenport, died Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011, at Trinity Bettendorf. Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. today at Weerts Funeral Home, Kimberly at Jersey Ridge Road, Davenport. Celebration of Life services will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 12, with Pastor Allen Mothershead officiating. Burial to follow at Czech National Cemetery, Cedar Rapids, at 2:30 p.m.

LeRoy was born in 1925, in Swisher, Iowa, to Milo and Bessie Zach. He graduated valedictorian from Rowley Consolidated High School in 1942. He attended the University of Dubuque from 1942 to 1943. He then joined the Army Air Corps as a radio operator mechanic and gunner from July 1943 to October 1945. LeRoy married Ruth Frances Mellinger on March 21, 1947. He attended Iowa State University, graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1948. He went on to receive his professional engineering license. After college, he began work at Iowa Public Service, Waterloo, from 1948 to 1955. He transitioned to Rath Packing Company in Waterloo from 1956 to 1979. He then began working at John Deere Component Works in Waterloo, ending his career at Deere & Company, Moline, when he retired in 1990 as manager of Facility and Indirect Engineering.

LeRoy was civically minded. Highlights of his civic duties include: serving on the board of trustees at the Christian Unity and Outreach, First Congregational Church in Waterloo, Past Exhaulted Ruler of the Waterloo Elks Lodge, president of the Waterloo Kiwanis Club, board member of Goodwill Industries of Northeast Iowa, board member and president of Community Services Building Board in Waterloo, and architectural consultant of Butterworth House, Moline. He was a member of Crow Valley Golf and Country Club, Davenport, and the Plantation Golf and Country Club, Vencie Fla.

LeRoy's interests included golf, bridge, traveling, painting and he was an author and poet.

Survivors include his wife; two daughters, Susan (Jim) Legg of San Tan Valley, Ariz., and Catherine Shaw of Iowa City; grandchildren, Joe (Julie) Legg of Danville, Ill., Anne (Tommy) Speight of Mesa, Ariz., Emma Shaw of Tempe, Ariz., and Michael Shaw of Iowa City; and great-granddaughter, Lorelei Speight of Mesa, Ariz.

LeRoy was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Bernice Wheeler of Guthrie, Okla.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Prostate Cancer Foundation or the Butterworth/Deere-Wiman Foundation Scholarship Fund.

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