In this Foxie Photo, Jim Scott turns one for Dick Pascoe
at Riverside, Calif. Rancheros Team Roping.
Oakdale Cowboy Museum Announces 2012 Honorees
The Oakdale Cowboy Museum is proud to announce the honorees for our 14th annual Dinner Auction Fundraising Event which will take place on Saturday, September 17, 2011. Each year the Museum honors individuals who has been instrumental in Oakdale’s western heritage. Special recognition will go to Bob Brunker Sr. and his ranch, El Rancheria Del Rio Estanislaus, a Mexican land grant located in Knights Ferry, Calif. Posthumously, the Museum will recognize local rodeo cowboy and rancher Dick Pascoe who passed away in 1996.
Robert H. Brunker has an incredible story of an East Coast upbringing to becoming the owner of one of the most historical ranches in the Central Valley. Bob was born in 1928, in Evanston, Illinois to Albert and Margaret Gaylord Brunker. He grew up in Lake Forest, Ill., had an Ivy League education where he was captain of his college ice hockey team and graduated with a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. He served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps for three years. In the winter of 1952, he would receive a letter from his grandfather, George Gaylord that would forever change his life. Mr. Gaylord wanted Bob to take on the ranch duties as General Manager of Ranch Operations of the 9,340 acres of El the Rancheria Del Rio Estanislaus located in Knights Ferry, Calif., which he had purchased in 1940.
Bob Brunker, Sr. and his ranch, El Rancheria Del Rio Estanislaus, will be one of the Oakdale Cowboy Museum honorees.
Bob had only visited the ranch one time as a young boy and had a lot to think about. Now a newlywed, he ran this idea by his Philadelphia born bride Beverly Buck and they both agreed to load up the car and head west. Bob enrolled in Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for some post graduate work inagriculture and animal husbandry, did a little work experience in Carson Valley with rancher Fred Dressler before moving to the ranch in 1954. El Rancheria Del Rio Estanislaus is a winter range for beef cattle and has seen cattleman such as George Wiswall with the ORO/Green Cattle Company, Fred Valenzuela, Ace Berry and Brunker himself in the hills and branding pens.
Bob and Beverly raised three children on the Rancheria and Bob became sole owner of the ranch in 2002. Bob has served in countless civic and community affairs of both Oakdale and Knights Ferry. He is the only living Charter member of Oakdale Rotary Club, a Charter Member of the Oakdale Country Club, a member of the National and California Cattlemen’s Association, past board member of Oak Valley Hospital District, Founding Director Oak Valley Community Bank, Founding Director of Oakdale Cowboy Museum, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Oakdale Chamber of Commerce in 2005, just to name a few!
For 57 years Bob has worked hard to keep the ranch and the land close to its original natural state. The rolling hills surrounded by century old oak trees and rock fences make El Rancheria DelRio Estanislaus one this one of the most beautiful and historical places in California history.
We will fondly recognize and remember local cattleman and rodeo cowboy Dick Pascoe.
Dick was born in San Fernando, Calif. in 1925, to Florence and Cecil Pascoe and was raised in Kernville, Calif. Dick grew up riding and loving horses and at age 16 put together his first cow herd and ran cattle in the Walker Basin.
When he turned 18, he sold his cows and joined the Army. He was a gunner in the U.S. Army Air Corp and sat in the ball turret in the nose of a B-17 Bomber flying 23 missions in the European Theatre over Germany. After being discharged from the Army in 1946, he began putting together another cow herd and also joined the PRCA and began to rodeo. He rode saddle broncs, bareback horses and bulls. Dick liked riding bulls the best and competed in that event throughout the 50’s finishing in the top 10 in bull riding several times during the fifties and ended up fourth in the world in 1953.
Along the rodeo trail Dick met up with Cotton Rosser and in 1956, the two became became owners of the Flying U Rodeo Company. “If it wasn’t for Dick, I would not have been in the rodeo business” states Rosser. In 1960, Dick and Cotton supplied the horses and cattle for the filming of The Misfits, a movie about an aging rodeo star and mustang wrangler. The movie starred Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift. Dick did much of the stunt work in the film, and doubled for Montgomery Clift who played a ro-deo cowboy. Dick also did the roping scenes when they were chasing wild mustangs in Nevada as a stand in for Clark Gable. He said he had to get bucked off and land on an X “that was marked in the arena. He planned it out and landed right on the X the first time so he only had to do it once. After five years in the rodeo business, Dick sold his interest in the Flying U to Cotton Rosser.
Dick continued to ranch in Nevada, and in the the early 60’s bought a ranch in Woody and leased a ranch in Oakdale. He and friend Jim Scott formed a partnership buying long horns, putting on ropings and running a yearling operation. Dick also leased the Robinson Ranch in the Oakdale area in 1962, where he ran a commercial herd of cattle of over 500 mother cows.
In 1991, Dick and Lyndalee Whipple bought a 40 acre clover ranch in Oakdale. Dick loved his cow herd, roping and always rode good horses. He went to the National Finals Rodeo five times in the team roping and also qualified for the Senior Pro Rodeo Finals.
Dick passed away in 1996, and is remembered as an excellent cowboy, a good friend, a great businessman and a true gentleman.
The Oakdale Cowboy Museum’s Annual Dinner Auction Fundraiser will take place on Saturday, September 17, 2011, at the Pioneer Equine Hospital at 11536 Cleveland Avenue in Oakdale. Tickets for the event, which include dinner, hosted bar, silent and live auction and dancing are $75 for Cowboy Museum members and $85 for non members. Call (209) 847-7049 for more information.
