Eldon LeRoy Schlenker

Eldon LeRoy Schlenker, 84, peacefully passed away on September 14, 2024 in Grimes, Iowa with his wife and children present.

Eldon was born on December 27, 1939 to LeRoy and Gladyce (Seibert) Schlenker in Grimes, Iowa. Eldon’s knack for doing things differently started from the beginning. During birth he was in an unusual position in the birth canal which made birth life threatening for both him, his mom, and future children. To save his life, a blood transfusion from his father LeRoy was necessary. The family often laughingly accused him of wanting to be an only child by attempting to “tear down the nursery”. However, over the next 10 years he and the family were blessed with 3 siblings; Marilyn (Bauer), Diane (Chambers), and Karl Schlenker.

From early on Eldon was fascinated with how things were engineered. His mom often said Eldon had to figure out how his new toys worked. The only problem was, when he was done disassembling them, they didn’t work anymore, but he knew how they once worked!

At age 12 he took an adult correspondence class on electronics from M.I.T. When a representative from the school visited, he was shocked to find Eldon was only 12-years-old instead of an adult.

Eldon needed a challenge. He started at ISU, then went to Central Technical Institute in Kansas City but didn’t find it challenging enough. Ultimately Eldon found his challenge and graduated from Washington Institute of Technology by correspondence.

Eldon worked on a variety of projects including being a member of the construction crew that built the first aluminum building in the country as part of the I35-80 Grimes corner, KDSM Fox 17, Chanel 11 Iowa Public Television, Channel 41 the Home Shopping Network, PS TV/FM for Des Moines Public Schools, AT&T and assisted with the installation of pipe organs in local area churches.

Eldon was a satellite communications specialist and worked on the Apollo project for NASA in the 60’s. Ultimately, his Grimes roots called him back to Iowa. He opened the company Videotronix, as a TV repair shop in an old hardware store on Main Street, only a few doors down from where his later in life daughter would open an office for her agency.

Eldon was a visionary and Eldon wanted more. After believing in this idea of radio towers, his dad permitted him to build these “silly towers”.

He decided to close the TV shop, rename his company to Aztec Engineering, and began contract engineering for local radio and TV stations.

Over the next 50 years he did contract work for, KJJY, KHKI, KGGO, KDMI, KTOF, KWBG, KCBC, KMRY and other assorted mid-west radio stations, and some TV stations. He spent many years traveling from Sacramento to Boston and many places in between for Fuller-Jeffrey Broadcasting. Eldon created a name for himself and became one of the top respected broadcast engineers in the area. It was a common phrase to ask, “what would Eldon think about this, let’s give him a call.”

Radio was good to him. In fact, it was so good to him it brought his wife Lynn! The owners of KDMI and Lynn’s roommate played matchmaker and set up their first date. This partnership of Eldon and Lynn led to marriage and this last December they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. In 1973 he married Lynn Horn and together they had 2 children, Liliana Tami Joe Schlenker Grace in 1976 and Wesley Eldon Schlenker in 1978.

He was always improving things, making them better, fixing them, and well, engineering a plan. Eldon engineered a beautiful life and shared his knowledge with anyone who wanted to learn. His signature look were his glasses and his boots with one pant leg in and usually one pant leg out.

Everyone who knew Eldon knew he was smart, ridiculously smart, but most of all under that big exterior, he had a soft spot of deep love for his wife, his children, his family and his faith.

Eldon was preceded in death by both parents, LeRoy and Gladyce Schlenker; sister, Marilyn Bauer; and brother, Karl Schlenker.

He is survived by his wife, Lynn (Horn) Schlenker; daughter, Liliana Tami Joe (Schlenker) Grace; son, Wesley Eldon (Rebekah) Schlenker; granddaughter, Hannah Joy Schlenker; his sister, Diane (Bob) Chambers; and 13 nieces and nephews.

Eldon engineered a beautiful life.

Visitation will be held Thursday, September 19, 2024 from 5 to 8 p.m. at Hamilton’s on Westown Parkway, 3601 Westown Parkway in West Des Moines, IA and the funeral service on Friday, September 20 at 1:00 p.m. at First Church of the Open Bible, 2200 Beaver Ave. in Des Moines.

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