Burton Lee Poulson

Burton Lee Poulson, 80, of Sioux City died Thursday, June 19, 2008, following a seven-year battle with lung cancer.

Memorial services will be 2 p.m. Monday, June 23, 2008 at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel. Burial will be at a later date in the Scandinavian Cemetery at Alta, Iowa.

Born Dec. 20, 1927, in Cherokee, Iowa, to Bert John and Rachael Croxdale Poulson, he graduated from the Alta, Iowa, community schools, where he played football and basketball. Proud to be an American and World War II veteran of the U.S. Army, he married the former Gretchen Jorgensen on Aug. 21, 1949.

A year later, he graduated from the University of Iowa, School of Business.

He began his career in banking as a teller at First Trust and Savings Bank in Alta, where he also farmed with his father. He served two terms on the Alta School Board and, in 1951, became a bank examiner for the Iowa Department of Banking. He moved his family to Sioux City in 1962, where he became the agricultural banker at Toy National Bank, a position he retained until he retired in 1983. He served on the boards of banks in Remsen and Anthon, Iowa, and in 1970, became co-owner and board member of Tilden Bank in Tilden, Neb.

A man's man, Burt loved hunting, fishing and boating. He had a lifelong love for farming, especially animal agriculture. In the 1970s, he co-founded the PB Cattle Company, currently known as the Poulson Ranch, raising cow calf pairs in the Loess Hills of Iowa. Throughout his career, he relished the relationships he formed with several generations of ranchers and farmers in Iowa, South Dakota and especially the Sand Hills of Nebraska. He also owned and operated the PB Orchard until 1996. He enjoyed spending his retirement summers in Okoboji.

Burt thought the world of his wife, Gretchen and his children and grandchildren and had a particular soft spot for his great-granddaughter.

He is survived by this wife, Gretchen of Sioux City; a son, Jeff and his wife, Jan of Sioux City; a daughter, Sue Bowers and her husband, Wes of Sioux City; grandchildren, Matt Bowers, Will Poulson, Jessica Fayh, Jake Bowers and Whitney Poulson; and a great-granddaughter, Hannah Poulson.

He was preceded in death by his sister, Evelyn Poulson; and his parents.

The family asks that memorials in his name be given to Hospice of Siouxland or First Lutheran Church of Sioux City.