He was born September 30, 1925, in Brazil, Indiana to parents Sellers Norwood Bunch and Stella May Lambert. Gordon was the eldest of four brothers: Frank who resides in Denton, Texas, with his wife, Diane; Paul who lives with his wife, LoRee, in White Rock, New Mexico; and Ralph who lives in Panorama City, California.

In 1930 his family moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where he grew up with three brothers, including twins nine years younger.

In 1945, he graduated The U.S. Army/Air Force Navigator School. He was commissioned at Ellington Field in Houston; attended radar operators' school in Victorville, California; then reassigned to a radar counter measure squadron in Riverside, California, as a navigator in the modified B-29 bombers. In November 1945, he was assigned to the 7th Geodetic Control Squadron at Buckley Field in Colorado. It was a project led by a civilian company doing experimental work on radar type electronic works. The work his squadron did then was the original groundwork in the development of the GPS systems we use today -- as well as for many other classified military applications. When the process was refined and crews were satisfied with the results, the squadron transferred to MacDill Field in Tampa, Florida, which was Gordon's favorite Air Force assignment. Between 1945 and 1948, he flew various missions to - Greenland; Puerto Rico; Guatemala; the Aleutian Islands, Alaska; and, Cuba. His squadron was just about finished training and ready to deploy to Hickam, Hawaii, or another Pacific location, when the atomic bomb was dropped. The war ended and all assignments were canceled or changed.

In May 1949, he was honorably discharged from the newest military branch, the U.S. Air Force (as of September 17, 1947), as a first lieutenant serving while assigned in the 343rd Photo Recon Squadron.

In 1949, Gordon met his wife-to-be in a Sunday school class at St. Luke's Methodist Church in Oklahoma City. His family had attended this church since he was a child. He proposed to Mary Ann on Valentine's Day in1951. Gordon and Mary Ann married June 2 that summer while he was still in college. They honeymooned in Chicago, Illinois.

Upon his graduation in 1952 from The University of Oklahoma in Norman with a degree in chemical engineering, they moved to Port Arthur, Texas. There he began work for Jefferson Chemical Company, Inc.

In 1956, his job sent him to Boston, Massachusetts, for a six-month temporary duty and Mary Ann quit her job and went with him. This proved to be one of the most enjoyable periods of their lives. They went to the Broadway musical The King and I and on the weekends they took many side trips all over the New England area, traveling as far as they could site seeing.

In 1960, his work moved them to Houston and they settled in the Spring Branch area where they joined Fair Haven United Methodist Church. Mary Ann and Gordon's first child, born a few years after being married, died shortly after birth. Their other three children were born in 1958, 1959, and 1961 following several miscarriages. Donald and Mary Beth were born in Port Arthur and Beverly was born after moving to Houston, all within three and one-half years. They were very proud of their children, and things got very busy for them, working and raising three children.

Between 1961-1985 as his children were growing up, he enjoyed many hobbies. He spent many months studying and planning vacations to various locations in the United States for the family. He took his young family and mother-in-law on numerous road trips to camp in the National parks. He even built special wooden boxes to use as storage containers and luggage carriers and painted them bright orange.

Gordon and Mary Ann had a network of friends who played duplicate bridge once a month for decades. He was very competitive in playing games. He looked forward daily to the newspaper so he could get to work on the daily Sudoku and crossword puzzles. And he subscribed to many educational magazines, which he read from cover to cover - National Geographic, Smithsonian, and Sky & Telescope.

He was an accomplished piano player and music sight-reader. He played the piano at home while Mary Ann sang. The family enjoyed hearing him play, especially the Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp minor.

Gordon played golf regularly with a group of men from Texaco for years and he enjoyed playing golf with Donnie at various Houston golf courses. While visiting Hot Springs Village on a vacation, he bought a lot, thinking they might retire someday to a golf community in Arkansas. He and the family enjoyed attending the live professional golf tournaments each year in Houston.

Watching sports on TV was probably his favorite television viewing - baseball, basketball, golf, and football. His favorite was baseball, and he loved watching the Astros - but only when they were winning. He frequently turned the games off when they got behind and came back later in the game hoping the outcome had improved. OU Sooner football was always popular.

He enjoyed babysitting his grandkids when they were young.

After he retired from Texaco, (1952-1985), at age 60, Gordon and Mary Ann traveled frequently and have visited every American state except Hawaii. He enjoyed travels that involved genealogy research in Mississippi and Louisiana. Their Alaskan cruise in 1999 was a favorite vacation trip. Gordon's later research passions over many decades were recording, cataloging and listening to classical music while painstakingly creating a huge personal library from blank audio cassettes; relentlessly pursuing the origin of his personal genealogy; and, the laborious seeking of truth through the lens of historical accuracy of the Bible through other sources about Christianity.

Gordon is survived by brothers: Frank Bunch and wife, Diane; Paul Bunch and wife, LoRee; and, Ralph Bunch. Children: Donald Lee Bunch; Mary Beth (Bunch) McKenna and husband, Mike McKenna; granddaughter, Sarah (McKenna) Chavez and husband, Marco Chavez and great-grandson, Diego Chavez; Beverly Ann (Bunch) Carter and husband, Ken Carter; grandson, Chip Rogers and wife, Jennifer, and granddaughter, Amy Rogers.

Submitted by his daughter Beverly Carter