Cedar Rapids community development director dies

CEDAR RAPIDS - Just five months and a few days after joining the city of Cedar Rapids in a top post as director of community development, Gary Kranse has died, after suffering a severe stroke, according to City Manager Jeff Pomeranz.

Kranse, who headed up the planning department for Laramie County in Cheyenne, Wyo., before coming to Cedar Rapids in late November, was 55.

He suffered the stroke April 25 at his Cedar Rapids residence and died Wednesday, city officials said, and his organs were donated.

'He was able to give this one last gift,” said his wife, Carolynn, an elementary school librarian.

Pomeranz called Kranse's death 'a terrible tragedy.”

'Gary gave the city organization and the entire community a tremendous amount in that short period of time,” Pomeranz said. 'He came to our city with tremendous experience and he worked tirelessly to reach out to the community in order to make Cedar Rapids a better place to live. He will be deeply missed.”

Pomeranz said the city looked all over the nation last year to find a new community development director, and he said that Kranse 'quickly rose to the top” among applicants because of his government planning experience and his work in 'high-growth communities.”

'We knew he was the person. He was a rare find,” Pomeranz said.

'From a personal perspective, Gary was an incredibly sincere person,” Pomeranz said. 'There was not an ounce of pretentiousness in the way he approached life. And people were drawn to that.”

City Council member Monica Vernon, who is chairwoman of the council's Development Committee and works closely with the community development director, said she was with Kranse last Thursday evening at a meeting of the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association.

Vernon called him 'hard-working and very positive.”

'He had fallen in love with Cedar Rapids, and he saw the possibilities of how much greater it can be,” Vernon said. 'He really, really wanted to help us out as a community. It's just hard to believe (he's died).”

Linda Seger, a leader of the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association and a board member of the Linn County Gaming Association, said it was hard not to cross paths with Kranse. In just the last couple weeks, she said he attended a public meeting on the city's new comprehensive plan and greenway system, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission meeting on a proposed Cedar Rapids casino, a Civil Rights Commission public forum and then her own neighborhood association's meeting.

'It was nice to see what a great ambassador he was for the city of Cedar Rapids even being such a newcomer,” Seger said. 'He was having a wonderful time talking to so many people. He was always kind and eager to learn.”

Kranse's wife said she was in 'disbelief” that her husband had died. She said he had been healthy, had no health problems and had been preparing to start bicycling in and around Cedar Rapids now that the spring weather was beginning to arrive.

'This was his dream job,” said Carolynn Kranse, who was going to join her husband in Cedar Rapids later this summer after their youngest of three children graduated from high school. 'We both found Cedar Rapids very welcoming and a wonderful town.”

Pomeranz said he has received an outpouring of calls and e-mails, testifying to the contributions Kranse has made to the community.

It's just a shock,” Pomeranz said. 'He was the real deal.”

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