Wayne Groff

Wayne Groff

Cedar Rapids

Wayne Groff, 73, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa passed away Thursday, December 12, 2024, at The Views in Marion, Iowa from complications of frontal temporal lobe dementia (FTD).

A visitation will be held from 10 – 11:00 a.m. prior to the 11:00 a.m. funeral service at Cedar Memorial Chapel of Memories, Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Monday, December 30, 2024. Burial: Cedar Memorial Cemetery.

Wayne Lee Groff was born in Spirit Lake, Iowa on January 31, 1951, to Mildred Frances (Taylor) Groff and Leslie Allen Groff, and grew up on a farm in northwest Iowa in the small farming community of Lake Park, Iowa.

He graduated from Harris-Lake Park High school in 1969 after a full and successful span of school activities that included football, leadership roles in student council, speech competitions, leading roles in school operettas —and music, music — and more music. He was an accomplished pianist and an All-State trombonist, who never brought home anything less than a 1+ rating at contest time. He loved singing with the high school mixed choir and was a member of various small groups — vocal as well as instrumental — and earned the John Philip Sousa award his senior year for musicianship and performance.

While music was in his bones, so was a growing interest in engineering and communications. By age 16 he’d acquired his ham radio license and he became known as WAØNJS across the airwaves, not only in the U.S., but internationally. It was a big deal to him when he worked someone from another country.

This love of all things electronic and communication would lead him to studying electrical engineering at Iowa State University after high school graduation, where his devotion to all things music once again blossomed as he sought out musicians and formed his own rock band, Meloncolony, which served as a welcome source of income in the days of being a poor college student.

Wayne, Matt, Clint, Bob and Chuck, his best band mates, played their way across central and west central Iowa and into Nebraska and South Dakota on weekends for homecoming and prom dances. Before the band concluded their career they played at the Roof Garden in Arnolds Park, Iowa, and other noted Iowa ballrooms such as the Starline in Carroll, the Playmour in Fort Dodge, Iowa, the Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa. They even enjoyed a brief encounter with politician Hubert H. Humphrey in Omaha, Nebraska, in a service elevator. The secret service made the band wait to haul their equipment up to the ballroom, until Mr. Humphrey was safely transported. Their music even rocked the dance floor one summer at the famous Mocamba Club in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Wayne and his high-school sweetheart, Rebecca Zobel, married on September 18, 1971, before the rock band days were over, but the couple grew tired of being poor young marrieds, so they accepted jobs in Des Moines with the Department of Public Safety where Wayne worked on the team designing and installing the new communications system for the Iowa State Patrol.

His dream goal of working for Rockwell-Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in an engineering capacity came to fruition in February, 1978, and his career with that company would last 33 years until his retirement in July, 2011. His engineering and business prowess would lead him from engineering into program management, and eventually into a director of programs position on the business end of defense electronic communications systems.

As his career grew, so did the family, with the addition of two daughters: first-born daughter Joanna Lea, and three years later, Jennifer Lynn.

Wayne was never satisfied with just a few hobbies and before serious health decline stole him away, he would build and race his own go-kart, pitch for a Rockwell-Collins men’s softball league, turn into a ferocious competitor on the racquetball court, work at his golf game (although he never did achieve a hole-in-one), and when he turned 50 years of age, he converted

from his earlier Honda motorcycle phase to a devout and loyal Harley Davidson motorcycle enthusiast — and one who liked a good cigar and two fingers of good quality Scotch whiskey.

He and his Harley buds enjoyed many summer trips together, touring the western United States and other parts of the U.S. that had fun winding roads that true cyclists love.

Through his business travel as well as family vacations he would get to see Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, Australia, England, France, Germany, Spain and Israel.

While he wasn’t much help with domestic chores around home, or in the kitchen, he could repair anything that broke, grilled an excellent steak, and took his lawn growing and maintenance chores very seriously producing a mean patch of gorgeous grass around the family home.

He was immensely proud of his daughters’ music and academic accomplishments and never missed one of their recitals or performances. Equally so, he never missed any of his wife’s choral group performances either.

He loved his wife’s cooking and was a willing guinea pig when she tried out new recipes, except for the time she used paprika that had gone rancid. One taste of the recipe, and it went into the trash, both agreeing it would be inhumane to toss it out for the racoons.

When Wayne was in junior high his parents bought the family a set of encyclopedias. He read the complete set, A to Z. He used to say his head was full of hundreds of useless bits of information. He wanted to know about all manner of things in this life, and it was this curiosity that made him a fun conversationalist.

Wayne is survived by his wife Rebecca, daughters Joanna (Derek) Nohr, Jennifer (Maher) Ardat, grandchildren Adrienne Nohr, Reese Nohr, Jocelyn Nohr, Ali Ardat and Eden Ardat. Sister Judy and husband Gary Taber, niece Lisa (Matt) Carstensen and great-niece Emma Niswander, sister-in-law Jane Zobel, nephew Mark Zobel, sister-in-law and brother-in-law Kathy and Norman Greiner, niece Bekki Greiner, great-nephew Joe Russell, and great-niece Ali Russell. He was preceded in death by his parents, two nephews, two brothers-in-law and his wife’s parents.

The family wishes to extend their deepest gratitude to the staffs of Meadowview Memory Care and The Views of Marion, along with the nurses and care staff from Mercy Hospice for the loving and vigilant care they provided to Wayne all through his many long years of dementia decline.

No formal memorial fund has been selected, but as Wayne loved supporting local musicians, the family encourages you to do the same and be generous in tips in his memory when the opportunity arises.

The funeral service will be live streamed at www.cedmemorial.com under the obituary for Wayne Groff, under the video tab starting at 11:00 AM, December 30, 2024.

Please share a memory of Wayne at www.cedarmemorial.com under obituaries.