Duane Stanley Munson

Duane Stanley Munson, 89, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, passed Sunday, December 21, 2025. Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on Friday, December 26, 2025, at Murdoch-Linwood Funeral Home & Cremation Service in Cedar Rapids, with a Masonic service beginning at 6:30 p.m. A funeral service will take place at 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 27, 2025, at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids. Burial will follow at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday at Wellman Cemetery in Wellman, Iowa.

Born September 28, 1936, in Iowa City, Iowa, he was the son of Mearl and Alta (Blumenstein) Munson. He grew up in Wellman, Iowa, where he graduated from the Wellman Public Schools with the class of 1954.

He was united in marriage to Betty Glider at the Webster Methodist Church in Webster, Iowa, on July 31, 1960. To this union were born son, Barry Lynn Munson, and daughter, Carla (Munson) Hybel.

Duane received a bachelor's degree from Iowa Wesleyan College in 1958 and a Master's Degree in Secondary Administration from the University of Iowa in 1965. He served as a language arts teacher and drama coach at New London, Iowa from 1958 to 1960. In 1960, he began a thirty-six-year career in the B.G.M. Community School District at Brooklyn, Iowa, five as a language arts teacher, and the final thirty-one as the secondary principal, retiring in 1996. Following retirement, he substituted in several area school districts for several years. In 1998, he and Betty moved to Cedar Rapids. In retirement Duane served as a driver for Murdoch Funeral Homes.

At the time of his death Duane was a member of St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Cedar Rapids. He was a member and past master of Poweshiek Lodge No. 174 A.F. & A.M. in Malcom, Iowa, past Grand Treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Iowa, and was affiliated with the Scottish Rite and York Rite bodies. He served on the Scottish Rite Foundation, Grand Lodge Finance Committee, was an emeritus member of the Grand Lodge Scholarship Selection Committee and Masonic Charitable Education Corporation and served several years as treasurer of the Iowa Masonic Library Association. Duane was a charter member and past president of the Brooklyn Kiwanis Club in Brooklyn. He was an emeritus member of the School Administrators of Iowa and a life member of the Iowa Alumni Association. Throughout his life, he was involved in many other church, community and professional activities.

In 1996, he was named an Administrator of the Year by the School Administrators of Iowa.

Duane will be remembered as a loving husband, father, grandfather and friend.

His love of travel took him to all 50 states, eleven European countries, the Eastern and Western Caribbean, Mexico, and Canada.

Duane is survived by his wife of 65 years Betty, son, Barry Munson of Iowa Falls, daughter, Carla Hybel (Tom Gearhart) of Ames, Iowa, and his beloved granddaughter, Amelia Estella Hybel of Ames, Iowa.

Duane was preceded in death by his parents, Mearl and Alta Munson, grandson, Niklas Lars Hybel, his in-laws, Ralph and Opal Glider, brother-in-law, Charles Ford, and son-in-law, Lars Hybel.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be given in Duane's honor to the CFS (Citizens Scholarship Foundation) of BGM Community Schools, Brooklyn, Iowa, where Duane and Betty established a scholarship to benefit BGM students, to Asbury United Church in Wellman, Iowa, where his religious training began, and to the Meth-Wick Community where he and Betty lived.