Leland and his family lived and worked on a farm north of Otis and he attended the Otis schools. He would often hitch a team of horses to a wagon and drive the younger kids to school, especially when the snow was deep.

Leland began playing baseball when he was 16. He played for several local town teams throughout the years. In 1948 at the age of 18 he tried out for the St. Louis Cardinals. After baseball he continued playing softball well into his 40's. He also took up bowling at the local lanes, and enjoyed playing cards, bridge, pinochle, cribbage and pitch, with family and friends.

After high school, Leland worked on the farm. He plowed, planted, cultivated & harvested wheat, corn barley, oats, etc. until he was drafted into the Army.

Leland entered the Army in January 1951 and served as a Combat Construction Specialist with Company B 114th Engineer Combat Battalion. His Army days took him to Ft. Lewis Washington, Camp McCoy Wisconsin, Ft. Riley Kansas and Camp Atterbury, Indiana. He worked to help those in need during the Great Flood of 1951. He sandbagged critical areas along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and rebuilt buildings, barracks, roads and bridges. More flooding occurred in April 1952 and he was sent to Sioux City, IA on Easter Sunday to begin rebuilding roads and bridges there. He was discharged from the Army in January 1953.

After the Army, Leland went back to working on the farm and worked on the railroad in Akron, rebuilding track and tamping ties. He lived in Otis with his family until he married Orahbelle Roach on 22 Aug 1954.

Leland and Orahbelle had three children, Myran born September 1957, Rodney born April 1960, and adopted daughter Pamela, born December 1964.

In 1957 Leland and Orahbelle moved to Montana where he worked as a door-to-door salesman for Singer Sewing Co. and Fuller Brush Co. In Sept 1958 they moved back to Akron and purchased Seibert Produce Co. They bought & sold eggs, cream, milk and other dairy products. Early in 1960 they moved to Date St. and switched over to Borden's Dairy where he would deliver dairy products to grocery stores, restaurants and house-to-house from Akron to Wray CO. He had several great trips up and down the highway with his kids and grandkids. He often had them doing various math and counting problems to help pass the time. He even had the nickname "Elsie" for a while. He retired from distributing dairy products in 1986, when he had knee surgery.

Leland was instrumental in organizing and coordinating with Pasters Bruce Jeske and Norman Lentz to establish Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Akron. They were finally successful with establishing the new church in August 1976.

In 1987 Leland began working for the Forest Service out of Ft. Morgan, CO. He planted trees for natural snow fences and his crew rolled plastic weed barriers out by hand. Leland being a natural engineer, designed and built the very first weed barrier machine, saving several hours of hard physical manual

labor. He built the machines through 1990 even after he quit working for the forest service. Leland was never one to just sit idle, he continued working various jobs until he finally retired from the Washington County Landfill in June 2003 and decided to start taking it easy. But he still did not sit still. He was always working on some type of machinery or building something new to make whatever he was working on function better or to make his chores a little easier. He moved to his current residence in October 2001, where he enjoyed talking with town folk and watching their comings and goings.

Leland was on the Akron Town Council from 1985 to 1989, the Otis Town Council from 1990 to 1994 and was the Mayor of Otis for a year and a half. He was a member of the local American Legion for 52 years.

Leland was preceded in death by his parents, his sister Darlene and his brother Wayne. He is survived by brothers Gene (Linda) Dunker of Augusta, KS, Dale (Carol) Dunker of Hudson, CO, brother-in-law Bill Otterstein of Yuma, AZ, sister-in-law, Joann Anderson Dunker of Hudson, CO. His three children, Myran (Barb), Rodney (Linda), Pamela (Danny). His eight grandkids, Phillip (Darcy), Stacy (Richard) Dunker Sager, Rita, Rhonda (Gary) Dunker Case, Joedon, Shelby, Dyllan & Luke and his eight great grandchildren along with several cousins, nephews and nieces.

Leland loved baseball, he would watch and listen to it as often as possible. He would keep track of players' trades and know how they were doing with their new teams. Because of his love of baseball, a graveside service will be held on Baseball's Opening Day 2021, 1 April 2021. In lieu of flowers or gifts, memorials can be made to the Akron Vets Home c/o Carl McGuire, 275 E. 1st St., Akron, CO 80720 . Questions call Jim McCracken at 970.554.0131.