Virgil Palmer

Virgil Lee Palmer, a retired dentist, tennis player, outdoorsman, artist and indefatigable museum goer, died Wednesday at home surrounded by his wife and family. He was 93.
Virgil was born Dec. 31, 1931 in Coffee County, Kansas, a descendant of families who arrived in the area in the 1850s, the same decade that Kansas became a state.
He was the son of Lee and Nellie Palmer, who owned and managed a farm near LeRoy, Kansas. The family also lived for a while in Ardmore, Oklahoma, where his father worked as a maintenance man for the Carter Seminary, a school for Native American girls.
In 2000, Virgil wrote a bio for the 50th anniversary of his graduation from LeRoy High School, explaining how he became a dentist and met his wife Marjorie:
"After graduating from LeRoy High, I enrolled in Chanute Junior College. I partied, played football and basketball and managed to graduate (barely) in two years.
"I beat the draft for the Korean War by joining the Coast Guard for four years. In the Coast Guard, I was a paint chipper, mess cook and deckhand before finally ending up working as a dental assistant.
"I was shuffled from the West Coast to the East Coast to the North Atlantic until I finally ended up at the Gulf Coast. While working at a Coast Guard base in New Orleans, I met and married a French Cajun wife, Marjorie Zeringue."
The couple was married at St. Mary of the Angels church in New Orleans in January 1956. "After being discharged from the service, we went to Kansas City, where Marjorie worked and put me through the University of Kansas School of Dentistry," Virgil wrote.
The couple moved to Haysville, Kansas, where Virgil practiced dentistry for 35 years and Marjorie earned a Master's Degree in English and taught at Campus High School for 25 years. They had four sons – Mike, Doug, Scott and Chris – who all graduated from Derby High School, after moving to that city in 1970.
For the last decade of Virgil's career, he practiced dentistry in a former one-room schoolhouse outside of Haysville that he purchased and renovated. The building, which was built in the 1910s, was destroyed by a tornado in May 1999 - "the only big problem we have had so far," Virgil wrote a year later.
Throughout his years in both Haysville and Derby, Virgil was engaged in local education and recreational issues, serving at times on school and park boards in both jurisdictions.
He purchased his home on James Street in Derby, attracted by its location at the end of a street on the edge of town. In the decade that followed, he fought unsuccessfully against development plans that eventually turned acres of farmland between his home and Rock Road into acres of homes filled with families attracted by Derby's good schools and parks.
An avid hunter and fisherman throughout his life, Virgil took up tennis in the 1970s and played the game into his 90s on courts throughout Derby and as a longtime member of the Wichita Racquet Club.
During retirement, he took up painting, taking numerous trips to New Mexico and other locations for lessons and outdoor excursions with other artists. He leaves behind dozens of paintings treasured by his family.
"While in the service, I caught the travel bug and have had it ever since," Virgil wrote in his 2000 bio. "Marjorie and I have been to all but two or three states, several countries in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, on a cruise through the Panama Canal, Costa Rica, Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands."
In the years that followed, Virgil and Marjorie added many more destinations to that list, including the Galapagos Island off the coast of Peru and photo safaris in Kenya and Tanzania.
He filled free time during his retirement managing and working on a number of rental houses he owned and fishing and hunting on his farm outside Latham, Kansas. He could spend hours in a museum reading every sign alongside every exhibit.
Virgil was a beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather and enjoyed spending time with them, including on several family reunion vacations at the Outer Banks in North Carolina and Destin, Florida.
During his final week, Virgil was cared for at home by his family, including members who flew in from New Zealand, Virginia, New York, California, Texas and Washington state.
When the end was near, his last words, to one of his sons, during a brief moment of consciousness, was "Thank you for everything."
Clutching his father's hand, his son replied "Thank you!" on behalf of the whole family.
Virgil died of cancer. In lieu of a funeral, he donated his body to the University of Kansas School of Medicine, where it arrived Thursday.
He is survived by his wife of 69 years Marjorie; his sons Mike, Doug, Scott and Chris; daughter-in-laws Jackie, Shelley and Michelle; his grandchildren Matt, Sam, Corey, Sarah, Casey, Luke, Rose, Ryan and Emma; and great-grandchildren Riggs and Wyatt.