Memorial
Arnold M. Bucksbaum, 93, died Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids. Funeral services on Monday, Nov. 19, 2018, 2 p.m. at Temple Judah, 3221 Lindsay Lane SE, Cedar Rapids. Burial following service at Eben Israel Cemetery, 207 Hawthorne Dr., SW, Cedar Rapids.
Arnold Bucksbaum was born in Marshalltown, Iowa in 1925, eldest child of Isaac and Bessie Bucksbaum who, along with their extended families, had immigrated and set down roots as merchants in the small towns of Iowa. These parents wanted their children to be Americans and so they were: Arnold grew up in Grinnell, in a house with a vegetable garden, a father who worked downtown and came home for lunch, and an extended family who reunited from across Iowa for holidays. He graduated from high school in Grinnell in 1943 and enrolled in electrical engineering at Iowa State College (now ISU). The next year he entered the Navy and served in the Pacific.
Dad completed his degree following the war and joined Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids. He married Corinne Schlass in 1950, and first son Steven was born in 1952. The family moved back to Grinnell, where Arnold took over a men’s clothing store from his father. Philip was born in 1953. Arnold returned to Cedar Rapids and to Collins as an electrical engineer from 1963 to 1968, to work on the Apollo moon landing project. For two years he was in New Jersey managing a subcontract, the only extended period he spent out of Iowa.
In 1968, with the completion of the Collins Apollo program, Arnold became a microwave engineer for Amana Refrigeration, to help design the Radarange microwave oven. He invented a much more effective microwave radiation door seal, which led to widespread consumer acceptance, and is still used in virtually all microwaves. He retired in 1990.
Corinne passed away from cancer in 1974. Arnold married Lilyan Riesman in 1980. Lilyan also died of cancer, in 1983. In 1990 Arnold married Elizabeth (Libby) Druker, and they enjoyed an active life in retirement until Libby’s death in 2017. The couple spent winters in Phoenix and summers in Cedar Rapids, and enjoyed hiking in the Arizona parks, and boating on the Mississippi.
Those surviving him are children, Steven and Philip; three grandchildren, Caroline, Noah and Teddy; four Druker children, David, Michele, Jon and Rachel.
Preceded in death by wife: Corinne Bucksbaum (1974); wife: Lilyan Riesman (1983); wife, Elizabeth Druker Bucksbaum (2017).
Memorials may be made to Temple Judah Religious School Endowment Fund on their website templejudah.org/donate-give/