Robert T. Quackenbush, age 80, of Austin, died Friday, May 4, 2007 at his home.

Robert was born in Spring Valley on May 22, 1926. During his high school years he was class president and was active in baseball, football, and basketball, and won a state medal as a soloist.

He enlisted in the U.S. Navy the day after his high school graduation and served as a gunner on an Avenger Torpedo Bomber during WW II.

Shortly after the war he played baseball for a semi-pro team and started his lifelong career in the insurance industry.

In 1949 he met and married Arlean Jean Henrikson in Valley

City, N.D. They moved to Albert Lea in 1954 and purchased the Bergen Insurance Agency &8212; later to be named QBC Insurance and World Travel.

He served as president of the Minnesota Independent Insurance Association, First Lutheran

Church, Albert Lea Country Club, and the Albert Lea Shriners and was active in the church choir, coaching sports, and was an avid golfer.

He also served as a city councilman for the City of Albert

Lea.

Moving to Austin in 1988, he continued selling insurance for First National Bank and later for Sterling State Bank.

Survivors include wife Arlean, daughter Jana Berghoff and husband Gene, son James Quackenbush and wife JoAnn, grandchildren Michael, Elizabeth and husband Eric, Krista, Austin, and Sophia. Diane Holland, Ann Quackenbush, and sister Gloria Strain and her husband Larry.

He was preceded in death by son Stephen Quackenbush, parents Lambert and Amy Quackenbush, sisters Virginia, Dorothy, and Constance, and brothers Lyman and Larry.

A memorial service will be held 3 p.m. on Tuesday, May 8, 2007 at St. Olaf Lutheran Church with Rev. Kristi Koppel officiating. Friends may call from 4 to 7 p.m. on Monday at Mayer Funeral Home and the family will also greet friends at a reception following the service at the church on Tuesday. Interment will be in Frankford

Cemetery in Spring

Valley.