Christine Helen "Chris" Rundus

Known by family and her many friends for her uncanny ability to bring harmony to the toughest situations, Christine Helen (Thoren) Rundus passed away on September 9th in Springfield, Missouri.
Chris grew up on the Thoren family farm in Russell, attended Russell Elementary School, briefly, and then the Chagrin Falls Schools. For health reasons, she attended Radford School for Girls in El Paso, Texas, during her sophomore and junior years, returning in 1959 to graduate with her beloved Class of 1960.
She attended Kent State University but later graduated from Carnegie College with a Medical Assistant degree. Don Barriball was her chemistry professor at Carnegie.
Her first job out of college was in the Hematology Department of the Ohio State University Hospital. In addition to her many duties there, she was the first female med tech from the OSU hospital system to work preparing astronauts for their Cape Canaveral-based shuttle missions.
Again, for health reasons, she left Ohio – moving to Colorado in 1969. She joined the Burn Unit of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. There she participated in leading-edge research on the use of vitamin E in burn treatment. She authored papers on the subject and gave presentations for the American Burn Association.
When in Denver she met her dear husband, Phil, at a church function. They were married May 1, 1976. Their rich life together included traveling throughout the West – including Alaska – and sharing a delight in homemaking and cooking together and caring for family and friends. She took an active interest in Phil's family farms in Belleville, Kansas, traveling frequently with him there to enjoy the corn, milo, or soy harvests. They moved to Springfield, Missouri in 2019.
Her greatest joy was in being a part of the active lives of the next generation of the Rundus family: her stepdaughter Beth and husband Dave Guse of Springfield, and their four children Cameron, Amanda, Grant, and Nicholas. Her tender care and interest in their adventures will be sorely missed.
Phil survives her along with her brother Bill Thoren (Doris) of Maine, sister Ann Bice (Blair) of Louisiana, and Margaret Luckay (Tom, deceased) of Chagrin Falls. Theodore and Helen Thoren, her parents, predeceased her.
Memorial Services will be held at Greenlawn South – 441 West Battlefield Road, Springfield, Missouri, on September 23rd at 1:00 p.m. Private interment at Missouri Veterans Cemetery, Springfield, MO. Funeral services have been entrusted to Greenlawn Funeral Home South.