After having lived a remarkably full life, Robert DeMarle Gunn passed away peacefully on August 3, 2024, at the age of 99. Funeral Mass will be held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Thursday, August 8th at 10:00 a.m. with Father Jonathan Demma officiating. The Rite of Committal will follow the funeral mass at Crestview Memorial Park. Visitation at Lunn's Colonial on Wednesday, August 7th from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The elder son of Florence Keller Gunn and William DeMarle Gunn, Bob began life on March 6, 1925, in St. Paul, Minnesota, but it would be in Texas that he would make his mark and live out the last seven and one-half decades of his life as an independent exploration geologist. The path would begin with a B. A. in geology from the University of Minnesota that led to a job with the Texas Company (Texaco) in Wichita Falls in the spring of 1949. In a relatively short time, he took the natural turn of someone of his temperament and founded Gunn Oil Company in 1958, serving as Chairman of the Board for more than sixty years. One of the highlights of his career was negotiating an agreement with Anne Burnett Tandy during the late 1960s to drill for oil on the Four Sixes Ranch headquartered in Guthrie, Texas.

Over the years Bob became a well-known figure in the oil industry and held several national leadership posts, including president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), founding member of the Board of Trustees of the AAPG Foundation, and Director of the Independent Petroleum Association of America. He was the recipient of the AAPG's highest award, the Sydney Powers Memorial Medal, and honored as an industry legend during ceremonies commemorating the AAPG's 100th anniversary. His contribution to the field was noted by his alma mater during the 1980s when he was awarded an Outstanding Achievement Award in a scientific discipline.

Known for being a long-time supporter of the Boys and Girls Club of Wichita Falls, he coached several Boys Club football teams during the early years, including those on which his sons Bill and Vince played, and, remarkably, sat on the Club's Board for fifty years. In 2021 at the age of 96, he once again stepped forward when he and his wife Carol agreed to serve as Honorary Chairs of the Boys and Girls Club's comprehensive Capital Campaign to raise funds for long-discussed projects close to Bob's heart. The campaign was a success, and, to his delight, Bob lived to see the completion of the new Eastside Boys and Girls Club on Rosewood Street.

As a team, Bob and Carol were instrumental in raising the funds to build the Bridwell Tower complex at United Regional Hospital. They also were committed to the mission of the North Texas Area United Way, receiving the organization's Lifetime Community Service Award in 2007. In recognition of their contributions to the life of the city, in 2013 the Wichita Falls Board of Commerce and Industry and the Times Record News named them Wichitans of the Year.

Though they generously supported the University of Minnesota and Midwestern State University (MSU), it was MSU that would become the focal point of their efforts. From 2002-2007 Bob and Carol served as co-chairs of the President's Excellence Circle, during which time memberships and contributions rose significantly. In 2013 they presented MSU with a major gift culminating in the naming of the Robert D. and Carol Gunn College of Health Sciences and Human Services. Their generosity also made it possible for MSU athletic teams, as well as other university groups, to travel out of town safely and comfortably on a new motorcoach.

Bob loved the natural world and was athletic from an early age, moving from trick bicycle riding to football and track and later to snow skiing, cycling, and jogging. Airplanes and flying were life-long interests, too, fostered, in part, by his time in the U. S. Army Air Corp during WW II.

He had legions of friends—the P2 crowd of the old days, skiing buddies on the slopes of Colorado, goose hunters in Texas, the Mavericks gang— and he took risks that for exploration geologists come with the territory. Some paid off; others had to be paid off. He reared four children with his wife Frances O'Connor Gunn on Kessler Avenue in Wichita Falls and in Vail, Colorado, and Whitefish Lake, Minnesota; and in June 2001 he began a new period in his life with his marriage to Carol Carlson Dean, a union that he said brought new purpose to his life and drew him closer to his Catholic faith. It was a big life, a Texas-sized life—a remarkably full life, indeed. And when God's call came, he was ready.

In addition to his parents, Bob was preceded in death by his brother Richard Gunn of Minneapolis, Minnesota; sons William (Bill) C. Gunn of San Francisco, California, and Vincent (Vince) C. Gunn of Wichita Falls, Texas; and daughter-in-law Nancy Story Gunn of Fort Collins, Colorado.

He is survived by his wife Carol Carlson Gunn of Graford, Texas; daughter Emily Gunn of Pine River, Minnesota, and her children William and Robert Woodruff; daughter Sheila Gunn McCormack of Natick, Massachusetts, and her children Conor and Hallie McCormack; daughter-in-law Ann Kritser Gunn of Wichita Falls, Texas, and her children Julie Strihan and Charles and Christopher Gunn; daughter-in-law Maggie Gunn of San Francisco, California, and Bill's children Suzanne and Greg Gunn; and by Carol's children, Kelly Dean Yandell and husband Pitts of Dallas, Texas, and their children Lily and Ford and William Carlson Dean and wife Amy Morrison Dean of Nichols Hills, Oklahoma, and their children Laurel and Blythe. Nineteen great-grandchildren also survive him.

The family suggests that those wishing to make a memorial gift in Bob's name please consider the Boys and Girls Club of Wichita Falls, 1318 6th Street, WF, TX, 76301; Catholic Charities of Fort Worth, Northwest Campus, 907 Holliday St, WF, TX, 76301; or the Endowment Fund of the Wichita Falls Museum of Art at MSU, 2 Eureka Circle, WF, TX, 76308.