Obituaries / LJWorld.com

Obituaries

Gardner - Funeral services for Donald Blaine Bechard, 52, Gardner, will be at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Gardner. Burial will be in St. Columbia Catholic Cemetery.Mr. Bechard died Friday, Sept. 5, 2008, at Kansas City Hospice Center following a two-year battle with sarcoma.He was born Oct. 2, 1955, in Oakley, the son of Armond Sr. and Adeline Kepka Bechard.Mr. Bechard graduated from Grinnell High School. He attended Barton County Community College and earned a degree in Secondary Education from Fort Hays State University. He was a teacher and high school coach at Scandia (Pike Valley), Norton, Manhattan and Gardner-Edgerton high schools. Mr. Bechard was a member of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Gardner, the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association and the Kansas Volleyball Association. He received the Don Jones Memorial Coaches Courage Award in 2007, the KBCA Coach of the Year Award in 1996 and the Kansas City Metro's Eddie Ryan Coaches Award in 1996. He was inducted into the Gardner Edgerton High School Athletic Hall of Fame Sept. 2, 2008.He married Jan Rumford on July 4, 1987, at the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Norton. She survives, of the home.Other survivors include son Connor and daughters Lauren and Addison of the home; his mother, Adeline Bechard, Grinnell; two sisters, Charla Moos and husband Dennis, Grinnell, and Mary Beth Nelson and husband J.D., Tonganoxie; four brothers, Harold and wife Susan, Salina, Richard and wife Pam, Overland Park, Raymond and wife Pam, Lawrence, and Armond Jr. and wife Cindy, Topeka; parents-in-law Clair and Norma Rumford, Norton; and many nieces and nephews.He was preceded in death by his father, Armond Bechard Sr. Friends may call from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday at Gardner-Edgerton High School Auditorium. A rosary will be said at 6 p.m., and a celebration of life will be at 7 p.m. in the high school gym.The family suggests memorials to the Don Bechard Memorial Scholarship Fund for future college students from Gardner-Edgerton High School, sent in care of Bruce Funeral Home, P.O. Box 192, Gardner, KS 66030.