Grant Walter Cocker

Funeral services for Grant W. Cocker, 80, of Rochester, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, May 9, 2014, at Ranfranz and Vine Funeral Homes. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Entombment will be at Grandview Memorial Gardens. Grant Walter Cocker was born Sept. 15, 1933, in Canton, to Walter and Hazel (McMaster) Cocker. He died Tuesday, May 6, 2014, at Saint Marys Hospital in Rochester surrounded by his family. Grant attended schools in Rochester and graduated from high school in Dodge Center. He served in the United States Navy and was discharged in 1960. He married Phyllis Williams on Sept. 11, 1955, in Rochester. He worked for Marigold Foods for 30 years in machine maintenance. Grant could fix anything and liked to tinker in his shop. He enjoyed building and flying his radio-controlled airplanes for many years with the RAMS Club. He had an outdoor fish pond and enjoyed spending time outside. Survivors include his wife, Phyllis Cocker of Rochester; a son, Mark (Cathy) Cocker of Brooklyn Center; and a daughter, Judy (Tony) Chihak of Rochester; four grandchildren, Bryce Poch, Gina (Ira) Newell and Jenny and Brian Cocker; two great-grandchildren, Aria and Reid Newell; a sister, Kathryn Phares of Marion, Iowa, and a brother, Hugh Cocker of Rochester. He was preceded in death by his parents and two brothers, Curt and Doug. Memorials are suggested to the Eagle's Cancer Telethon.