lit a candle 2d agoMy wife sent me this obituary from Iowa, we don't know any Kreutzers, she just said read this one, and I did, sitting at the kitchen table with my coffee going cold. Forty some years laying brick, that's a whole life right there, and then this bowling hall of fame thing in 95, I didn't know Iowa even had one of those but apparently they do and he earned his way in. I keep thinking about the Honor Flight part, 2023, an old vet finally getting to see the memorials, that got me more than it should have for a man I never knew existed until this morning. Anyway. Rest easy Steven, hope Diane and the family are doing alright. Edit: looked it up, Marion is right next to Cedar Rapids, small world even when it isn't your world.
Their story
Steven Lee Kreutzer was a bricklayer, Vietnam era Air Force veteran and devoted bowler from Marion, Iowa, who died on November 6, 2026, at the age of 79. He was not a celebrity or a public official, and he does not have a Wikipedia page. He is remembered here because…
Steven Lee Kreutzer was a bricklayer, Vietnam era Air Force veteran and devoted bowler from Marion, Iowa, who died on November 6, 2026, at the age of 79. He was not a celebrity or a public official, and he does not have a Wikipedia page. He is remembered here because his family and funeral home published an obituary describing a life built around steady work, military service and the small rituals of an Iowa community, the camping trips, the golf games, the bowling nights and the Hawkeyes, Packers and Cubs on television.
He was born on August 6, 1947, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Leland and Marilyn Kreutzer. He graduated from Cedar Rapids Washington High School, and after graduation he enlisted in the United States Air Force, serving during the Vietnam War. When he returned home he went into the building trades and spent more than four decades working as a bricklayer, a trade that in Iowa and across the Midwest has long been passed down through apprenticeship and years of physical work on job sites.
Outside of work, Kreutzer's name was known in local bowling circles. He was inducted into a Bowling Hall of Fame in 1995, a recognition reserved for amateur bowlers who distinguish themselves over years of league play rather than professional competition. He also enjoyed camping at Bobber's, playing pool and golf, and the Midwestern yard game known as bags, and he followed the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Cubs. In 2023 he took part in an Honor Flight, the program that flies American military veterans to see the war memorials built in their honor in Washington, D.C., a trip many veterans and families describe as deeply meaningful.
Kreutzer married Diane Jess on June 5, 2019, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He died on Friday, November 6, 2026. His obituary does not list a cause of death, and no cause has been made public. He is survived by his wife, Diane Kreutzer of Marion, and by his siblings, Kelly Siegel of Tucson, Arizona, and Denny Kreutzer of Cedar Rapids, along with many extended family members. A visitation is scheduled for Thursday, November 19, 2026, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. at Cedar Memorial Park Funeral Home in Cedar Rapids.
Biography adapted from News reports and the sources cited on this page; death reported by Legacy | Obituary.
That Honor Flight line got me too, he waited a long time for that trip.