Dennis Frank Buschkowsky

Dennis Frank Buschkowsky of Madison Lake, MN, passed away at the age of 89 on Monday, April 29, 2024. A Celebration of Life memorial service will be held this summer and will be announced at a later date. Mankato Mortuary is assisting with arrangements. 

Dennis was born on September 5, 1934, in Chaska, MN, to Gerhardt and Hattie Busch(kowsky). After graduating from Chaska High School in 1952, he enlisted in the US Air Force and became a radio operator. He served on Guam during the Korean War providing communications for aerial missions. 

After he was discharged in 1956 at the rank of staff sergeant, he enrolled in Mankato State College where he met his future wife, Mary Kortuem, while serving as her partner in a card game. They were married in Marysburg Church shortly after he graduated in 1961 with a teaching degree. 

His first teaching position was at Centralia Junior High in the state of Washington where he taught before Mary’s homesickness brought them back to Minnesota. He soon found a teaching position in Hutchinson, MN where their first son, Brian, was born. Dennis then landed a position at North Mankato Junior High.

He and Mary found a turn-of-the century farmhouse to rent along the west shore of Madison Lake in 1967 and their second son, Lee, arrived several years later. He and Mary scraped together enough to purchase the property and built a new house in 1977. 

In the fall of 1982, Dennis transferred to Mankato East Junior High where he continued to teach until his retirement in 1995. It’ll never be known exactly how many students he taught over his long career but to this day he is still remembered by many as “Mr. B.”

He loved to fish and spent many winters ice fishing on Madison Lake. In the spring he helped Mary track and record the official “ice out” date for the lake. 

He is survived by his two sons, Brian and Lee; brother, Gary; daughter-in-law, Jennifer (Lee); grandchildren, Lance and Paul; nieces, Sara Carlson and Anne Bingham, and nephews Jim and Jeff Bingham, Greg, Jeremy, and Randy Busch.