Glenn E Marihugh

Obituary for Glenn E. Marihugh

Glenn E Marihugh, Esbon, Kansas, son of Walter Lee and Mable Lovilla (Phillips) Marihugh, was born on the family farm in Odessa Township, south of Esbon, Kansas on January 6, 1935. He was baptized at the Dentonia Church of Christ as a young boy and was a member of the Esbon United Methodist Church. He passed away at his home surrounded by his family on April 2, 2014 at the age of 79 years, 2 months, and 27 days.

Glenn was united in marriage on June 27, 1959 to Shirley Kay Hughes. Five children were born to this union: Brenda Kay, Karen Kay, Sandra Kay, Scott Andrew, and Mark Howard. They lived in New Jersey and New York state before moving to Kansas in 1974.

Glenn began his education in a one room school house in Dentonia. He then attended Esbon high school through his junior year, and completed his senior year at Liberty Memorial High School in Lawrence, Kansas, in preparation for enrollment at the University of Kansas. He obtained a Bachelor of Science (1961) and Master of Science (1969) in Electrical Engineering from Newark College of Engineering in New Jersey. He also served in the Army Signal Corps for two years.

He worked as an electrical engineer for Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey, and then in 1961 began employment with General Electric in Syracuse, New York as a Design Engineer in the early days of the NASA Space Program. He then returned to Bell Labs where he continued his engineering career before moving home to the family farm in Kansas. He enjoyed farming with his family for forty years until his death.

Together Glenn and Shirley had a life filled with adventures and accomplishments. They raised a strong, close, loving family and shared many activities including road trips across the country with five kids in tow, summers in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, designing and building their Kansas home, and many graduation trips and cruises with their grandchildren. In later years, they branched out to international travel and enjoyed ten winters in sunny Mazatlan, Mexico.

Glenn had a multitude of interests and hobbies among which were gardening, ham radio, playing the piano, refinishing furniture, genealogy and history, electronics and mathematics, astronomy, reading, playing cards and games with family and many friends, square dancing, and general “puttering” as his hands and mind were never idle. But of all these, the center of Glenn’s world was his family. “To the world he was one person, but to those who loved him, he was the world.”

Glenn was preceded in death by his parents, sister Gwendolyn Stouffer, and nephew James Marihugh.

He is survived by his wife Shirley, of the home; daughters Brenda Seaman (Lon), Portis, KS; Karen Loeffelman (Eduard), St. Louis, MO; Sandra Zabel (Steven), Chattanooga, TN; sons Scott Marihugh (Vickie), Esbon, KS; Mark Marihugh (Kathy), Galva, KS. Glenn has 19 grandchildren. Chad Seaman, Clark Seaman (Tiffany), Candace Seaman, Jeremy Long (Katie), Julie de Graaf (Derek), Cory Loeffelman, Melanie Loeffelman, Andrew Zabel, Sam Zabel, Lily Zabel, Cody Marihugh, Trevor Marihugh, Brayden Marihugh, Lynnea Marihugh, Rhys Marihugh, Trey Marihugh, Brittney Taber, Jake Senger, Shawn Marihugh. He also has special honorary grandchildren. Guim Pallas (Elisa) and Kinsley St.Clair.