Virginia Cunningham Gordon, 91, died peacefully at home with her children attending.

She was born June 15, 1931 to Ray and Ethel Cunningham of Ames, Iowa. She graduated from Iowa State University in June of 1953 with a BS in Home Economics Education. It was there that she met her husband, Gene Gordon from Dubuque. They married December 19, 1952 and eventually settled in Dubuque where Gene, an architect, designed and built their home where they raised their five children: Sandra (Haupt), Steven, Michael, Douglas, and Mark. Ginny was very involved in her children’s activities. She was a Girl Scouts leader and a den mother in Boy Scouts. All the Gordon children were swimmers and Ginny received an award from the YMCA swim team for her 19 years as a parent volunteer. She was the PTA president for Bryant Elementary, Washington Jr HS, and Senior HS. She laid a spiritual foundation for her children at Westminster Presbyterian Church where she taught Sunday School for 20 years. She was also active in the church as an elder, a deacon, trained Stephen’s Minister and children’s tutor. In her later years she served on the Church’s building and grounds committee and she coordinated the funeral receptions at the church.

Ginny was a natural leader. She knew how to organize people and how to run a meeting with efficiency and grace. She was the president of every community organization in which she participated: PEO, The Sunshine Circle, The United Way, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), Friendship Force, and the Head Injury Support Group.

Ginny was proud of her work with the Symphony helping children see concerts with the implementation of Art Trek. Her work with the United Way was satisfying as she helped to identify the needs within the city and shape the conversations about how best to meet those needs. Ginny showed her love through acts of service. She was a hard worker and would do anything to help a friend or family member.

Ginny learned to downhill ski during her honeymoon with Gene, at Winter Park. Ginny and Gene taught their kids to ski down the front yard almost as soon as they were able to walk. In the early 70’s Gene had a vision to start a ski area outside of Dubuque and in 1973, Sundown Ski area had its opening season. During the construction, Ginny wasn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves and get the work done. She’d throw rocks off the slopes, paint or stain anything that needed painting, cook food for the volunteer work crew that helped build the first lodge and on and on.

Gene and Ginny revived their stellar construction teamwork in 1979, when their cabin in Minnesota burned down. The following summer, Gene redesigned the cabin and Ginny, three of her sons, and their friends rebuilt the cabin. “Pick up your feet, we’ve got a deadline to meet,” she’d say.

She was not all work though. She believed that it was also important to have some fun along the way. She enjoyed reading, playing bridge, tennis, skiing, knitting hats for babies and blankets for veterans, picking blueberries, gardening, biking through the Minnesota forests, canoeing, fishing, watching sports on TV, and dancing. Ginny and Gene enjoyed traveling with the Friendship Force as well as hosting people from other countries—Guatemala, Sweden, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Japan, Bahamas, Philippines. She loved her dogs too. Ginny was kind, decisive, hardworking, giving, welcoming, and fun loving.

She will be missed. Her wisdom that she’d impart to family as we’d part: “Be Kind, be good, and do all the things you know you should.” In lieu of flowers please make donations to Westminster Presbyterian Church or the charity of your choice.

The visitation will be at 10:00 am, the service at 11:00 am and the reception lunch at noon all held at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dubuque on Thursday June, 15, 2023.

Ginny is preceded in death by her husband Gene and is survived by her children, Sandra (Haupt), Steven, Michael, Douglas and Mark; her grandchildren, Hans, Heather, Sara, Ben, Cody, Troy, Amy, Peter, Laura, Tanner, Finlay, and Willem; and her great grandchildren, Hazel, Mark, Vincent and James.

Visit Ginny’s obituary at www.egelhofsiegertcasper.com, where you can view Ginny’s life in pictures.