Marion "Jim" Gruber, Jr.

 

Marion J Gruber Jr. “Jim”, 67, passed away on Saturday, August 7,  2021. Jim was born August 28, 1953 in Topeka, the son of Marion J Gruber Sr. and Betty Norton Gruber. Jim was raised in east Topeka and spent a lot of time in Overbrook, KS with his grandparents. Jim learned to drive a dump truck at an early age and worked for several trucking companies. In 1982 he bought his first truck and started Gruber Dump Trucking. For the next 30 plus years he would work sun up until sun down. Anyone that has ever worked with him or for him will know this to be true. He never wanted to retire or even slow down and he didn’t. He was most recently working for Randy Long Trucking. He worked hard until the day he died as we all knew he would. Jim met Becky Warbritton when they were 15 years old and he quickly became a part of the family. They were married on May 7, 1971. Becky stood by Jim through thick and thin and had just celebrated 50 years of marriage. Becky survives at the home. Together, they had a daughter, Kelli Munsell (Chuck). Jim had 5 grandchildren, Tori (Hunter), Tyler, Travis, Trent and Trevor and two great-grandchildren, Ryder and Eva.   Other Survivors include his brother Steve, and sisters Linda, Carol, Christine, Debbie and Mary Jo. Jim was preceded in death by his parents and two infant sisters. Jim also leaves behind an abundance of nieces, nephews, cousins and a lifetime of hunting, fishing, racing and trucking friends. When Jim wasn’t working he was hunting, fishing or racing and had several award winning coon dogs, bucks, big catches and race cars. He never went somewhere that he didn’t know someone. A Celebration of Life will be scheduled at a later date. If you would like to honor Jim, we ask that you eat a good meal, grab a margarita, throw in a pole, run a coon, take a lap around the track or haul that last load of the day.  That’s what he would’ve demanded we all do. Pole down, big buck down, over and out.