Curtis Eicher

Curtis Lee Eicher, 86, of Colby, died Saturday, June 5, 2021, at Citizens Medical Center. He was born March 7, 1935, on a farm north of Brewster to Harry and Lois (McArthur) Eicher. He attended the Prairie Gem School, and at 6 years old, he drove a farm truck to school each morning containing the school’s water supply. He graduated from Brewster High School, where he drove the school bus starting his sophomore year.

He followed his older sister to the University of Colorado in Boulder, but after a semester he was homesick and returned to Kansas. That fall, he joined the U.S. Army before being drafted and served two years at a base in Gary, Ind. After completing his service, he returned to Kansas State University, where he flunked ballroom dancing, but somehow convinced someone to substitute welding for an English requirement so that he could be awarded a bachelor’s degree in feed technology with an administration option.

On Aug. 16, 1959, he married Beverly Sims. They returned to live on the farm in a house near his parents. He was elected to the Brewster School Board and was appointed to the board of the Goodland vocational technical school.

He had planned to spend his life farming with his father but driving the tractor aggravated a previous back injury. After surgery, he looked for a less physically demanding career and wound up with a job interview for a position as bank examiner for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. When he told the interviewer he had a background in agriculture and wanted to live and work in Northwest Kansas, he was hired on the spot.

He considered bankers among the smartest people he knew, but he worked for FDIC during a 30-year period when many banks had to be closed. He spent his weeks traveling with fellow examiners, often eating tamales or other delicacies straight out of the can. On weekends, he returned home to Colby, where the world’s best cook awaited.

After his retirement, he became a master gardener and an excellent cook himself. He was known to his grandchildren as HoHo and never failed to please them with his chicken enchiladas.

He was preceded in death by his parents; a brother, Kenneth Eicher; and three sisters, Lillian Buckner, Edith Taylor and Esther Eicher.

He is survived by his wife, Beverly, of the home; a son, Eric Eicher, of Colby; a daughter, Erin (Randy) Mathews, of Colby; and grandchildren Sabrina and Lear Eicher and their mother, Vanessa, and Brady, Graham and Reece Mathews.

A celebration of life service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday, June 14, at the Colby United Methodist Church. Memorials are suggested to the Prairie Museum of Art and History or Kansas State University, in care of Baalmann Mortuary, PO Box 391, Colby, KS 67701. For information and online condolences visit www.baalmannmortuary.com