Dean Buntrock

Early years

Born in Columbia, South Dakota, on June 6, 1931, Buntrock began learning about business working for his father, Rudy Buntrock, a community leader who owned a farm services business that included International Harvester farm equipment, tractors and trucks, along with Standard Oil products, hardware and other farming-related needs. He led campaigns to build the local gym and fund War Bonds. Guided by his father's businesses and by his mother, Lillian (née Hustad), Buntrock showed entrepreneurial traits by raising chickens and growing potatoes. At age 14, he drove a truck hauling grain during harvest and at 16 became a salesman for his father's business.

Education

Buntrock was raised a Lutheran and his early education was based on his parents' Christian values, such as tithing, saving, respect and pursuing excellence. He attended the one-room St. John's Lutheran School from grades five through eight. The school had 30 students; his high school class would have just eight graduates. His education continued at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he majored in business and history. He returned home in his junior year to help with the family business when his father developed cardiovascular disease. He served in the Korean War, attending finance school at Fort Benjamin Harrison, before returning to St. Olaf to complete his college studies in 1955.

Two days after graduation, Buntrock married Elizabeth (Betty) Joanne "B.J." Huizenga, also a student at St. Olaf.

Buntrock had three daughters from his marriage to B.J. Huizenga and six granddaughters. The marriage to Huizenga, who died in 2014, ended in divorce in 1983. In 1984, Buntrock married Rosemarie Nuzzo.

Buntrock died at his home in Indian Wells, California, on April 17, 2026, at the age of 94.

Buntrock has been a generous benefactor for numerous institutions, including his alma mater St. Olaf College, the Lutheran Church in America, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, numerous arts organizations, and to conservation and environmental groups such as Ducks Unlimited and the National Wildlife Federation, the last of which he served as a director. In 1996 he contributed $26 million to St. Olaf College, the largest single gift donated to the school or any other Lutheran college in the United States. The money was the lead gift to build a new student center which opened on November 5, 1999. Named the Buntrock Commons in honor of Buntrock and his family, the building is a community center housing services to support student academic and social lives. Buntrock served as chair of the St. Olaf Board of Regents from 1986 to 1995. In 2018 Buntrock contributed $21.4 million to Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, the largest single gift in its history. The gift funded a pilot program designed to allow the seminary to educate and train students in two years, instead of the four years typically needed for a master's degree in divinity. The gift was to reduce the cost to students and lower college debt, which has been a detriment to seminary school enrollment. Buntrock philanthropy has supported numerous Chicago civic and cultural institutions. A life trustee of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Buntrock funded the development of the CSO's Symphony Center, a multi-use facility used for rehearsals by the Chicago Symphony Chorus and Civic Orchestra of Chicago. The facility is used for chamber performances, dinners, receptions, lectures, trade shows and meetings. He was a founding board member and contributor to Chicago's Millennium Park. He served as a member of the Terra Foundation for American Art board and played a key role in filing a lawsuit with other board members that resulted in keeping the Terra Museum in Chicago. Buntrock has supported a range of health institutions, including Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, the Lurie Children's Hospital and the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California.