Dean L. Buntrock
June 6, 1931—April 17, 2026
Dean L. Buntrock led the founding of North America’s largest waste services company, Waste Management, Inc. (now known as WM), and was the company’s longtime chairman and chief executive officer. Along the way, he was a leading voice in organizing an entire industry.
He was also a philanthropist, investor/entrepreneur, and sportsman who contributed time, money, and counsel to a range of civic, artistic, educational, medical, and religious organizations.
Dean Buntrock, 94, passed away April 17, 2026, at his home in Indian Wells, Cali. He was born on June 6, 1931, in Columbia, S.D., a town with fewer than 160 people, where his parents, Rudy Buntrock and Lillian Hustad Buntrock, owned a farm and operated a farm services business. At age 14, he drove a truck hauling grain during harvest and at 16 was a salesman for the family business.
Dean adopted values derived from his mother’s Norwegian and father’s German heritages. He was raised a Lutheran. He attended the one-room St. John’s Lutheran School from grades five through eight, which was across from his home. His high school class had eight graduates. He earned a degree in 1955 from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, majoring in business and history. His education also included attending finance school at Ft Benjamin Harrison while serving in the U.S. Army.
Dean married his first wife, Elizabeth Joanne “B.J.” Huizenga, a St. Olaf student; they later divorced. In 1956, his father-in-law, Peter Huizenga, died, and Dean assumed a management role in the family trash-hauling business, then known as Ace Scavenger Service. Ace was a conglomeration of companies owned in partnership with two other Huizenga widows.
Only four months later, Larry Groot, a partner in the business, also died, leaving Dean in charge. Ace had just 15 collection routes, each with revenues of $4,000 a month, and an interest in a waste incinerator in Stickney, Ill. Over the next 12 years, Dean grew the Ace business, doubling its revenues every three years and expanding into Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Along the way, he connected with H. Wayne Huizenga, who operated a small but fast-growing garbage-hauling business in Broward County, Fla., called Southern Sanitation Services. A third partner, the late Larry Beck, joined the two when he merged his Atlas Disposal business into the new company. His first key management hire was Phillip Rooney, a decorated Marine officer who joined the company at its inception. Dean regarded Rooney as his management partner and relied on him to lead the company’s operations for more than two decades.
Dean recognized the potential for value creation in the waste services industry, following the Browning-Ferris Industries model. With emerging environmental regulations driving the need for capital, he launched an initial offering of 320,000 shares at $16 each, raising around $4 million. In 1970, Waste Management generated just over $10 million in revenues and had earnings of less than $700,000. The company served over 8,000 commercial and industrial customers across several states, operated landfills in multiple locations, and employed about 400 people.
In late 1970, Dean initiated the process for the company to go public, with his late brother-in-law, Peter Huizenga, a young lawyer at the time, facilitating the necessary transactions. Waste Management, with The Chicago Corporation as its lead underwriter, went public on June 17, 1971, approximately 19 months after the United States Environmental Protection Agency was established on December 2, 1970.
Within three years, the company was operating coast to coast with hundreds of divisions. Nearly all of these operations had been family-owned companies, and their former owners were now Waste Management general managers, all considerably wealthier because of the value of their shares in Waste Management.
Dean played a pivotal role in establishing the National Council of Refuse Disposal Trade
Associations in 1962, recognizing the need for a unified national voice for the industry. In 1968, he successfully led the formation of the National Solid Waste Management Association (now known as the National Waste & Recycling Association), serving as its inaugural president for nearly two decades. His vision fostered collaboration among industry experts to enhance waste management practices and technologies. Additionally, he was an advocate for advancing environmental legislation, promoting more stringent state and federal regulations on waste handling, while diligently monitoring developments in labor law and safety practices.
Under Dean’s leadership, Waste Management expanded its service offerings to include
recycling and solid waste management, hazardous waste solutions, waste-to-energy initiatives, clean water technologies, and environmental engineering. By the late 1980s, Waste Management had established a global presence, serving clients in more than 20 countries across Europe, as well as in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. The company became a forerunner in international municipal cleaning efforts, successfully securing contracts for sanitation operations in cities such as Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, and Buenos Aires and Cordoba in Argentina. Dean’s contributions and the evolution of Waste Management are documented in the 2023 release of *The Waste Managers: The Team that Built Waste Management, Inc., One of North America’s Most Important Companies.*
Dean retired as CEO at age 65 in 1996, at which time the company had grown to more than $9 billion in annual revenues and employed 70,000 people. The Waste Management board named him chairman emeritus.
Dean contributed to numerous institutions, including his alma mater St. Olaf College, which honored him with its inaugural Founders Medal in November 2025. In 1996, a Buntrock gift to St. Olaf College was the largest single gift donated to the school or any other Lutheran college in the United States. The money supported the building of the college’s student union. Dean served as chair of the St. Olaf Board of Regents from 1986 to 1995.
He contributed generously to the Lutheran Church, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
numerous arts organizations, and to conservation and environmental groups such as Ducks Unlimited and the National Wildlife Federation, the last of which he served as a director.
In 2018, Dean contributed to Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., the largest single gift in its history. The gift funded a program that allowed the seminary to educate and train students in two years, rather than the four years typically needed for a master’s degree in divinity. In 2023, a gift by Dean and his wife, Rosemarie, to Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D., funded scholarships for students active in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Dean has made significant contributions to various civic and cultural institutions within
Chicago. As a distinguished life trustee of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he generously supported the development of Buntrock Hall, which serves as a versatile venue for chamber performances, receptions, lectures, trade shows, and meetings. His dedication to education is clearly reflected in his support for esteemed local organizations such as the Chicagoland Lutheran Educational Foundation (CLEF) and Holy Family Ministries. Additionally, he had the honor of serving as principal for a day on several occasions during Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration.
He was a founding board member and contributor to Chicago’s Millennium Park. He served on the Terra Foundation board and played a key role in securing the Terra Museum for American Art in Chicago.
Dean supported a range of health institutions, including Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California.
Dean received the 1996 Horatio Alger Award. The honor recognizes “contemporary role
models whose experiences exemplify that opportunities for a successful life are available to all individuals who are dedicated to the principles of integrity, hard work, perseverance, and compassion for others.” Dean was a 1992 inductee into the SMEI Academy of Achievement, established to recognize contributions to the free enterprise system through personal and corporate success in sales and marketing. In 1997, he was named outstanding chief executive in the pollution control industry by Financial World magazine and Wall Street Transcript. In 2007, he was inducted into the National Solid Waste Management Association Hall of Fame.
Dean supported conservative causes and contributed to the Republican Party. He was a
substantial early contributor to Turning Point USA.
Dean was an avid sportsman who developed a passion for hunting as a young boy in South Dakota. He served on the National Wildlife Federation’s board and was a strong supporter of Ducks Unlimited. His adventures took him around the world, with hunting trips spanning Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. One notable trip brought him to Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, where he traveled aboard a Russian military helicopter, accompanied by former Soviet guides and scientists. At the age of 88, he completed his 40th pheasant hunting trip to Ireland.
In addition to hunting, Dean enjoyed playing golf, although he acknowledged that he struggled with the sport throughout his life. He was a member of several prestigious golf clubs: Butterfield Country Club in Oak Brook, Ill.; Big Foot Country Club in Fontana-on-Geneva Lake, Wisc.; and The Vintage Club in Indian Wells, Cali. For more than 50 years, he was also a dedicated season ticket holder for the Chicago Bears.
Beloved husband of over 40 years to Rosemarie Buntrock (neé Nuzzo); proud father of three daughters from his first marriage, Dana Buntrock (Leroy Howard), Margot Buntrock Weinstein (Gary Weinstein), and Charley Buntrock Zeches (Robert Zeches); adored grandfather of six granddaughters, Dr. Emily Aronson Weinstein (Jason Aronson), Amanda Kirsten (Jason), Kate Weinstein, Aster Zeches, Devon Zeches, Genevieve Zeches; loving great-grandfather of two great grandchildren, Nina Aronson and Dean Aronson; brother of the late Clayton Buntrock and the late Joyce Buntrock; uncle of Jeffery Buntrock and the late Steven Buntrock; loving brother-in-law of John Nuzzo (Debbie); lifelong friend of many.
A Memorial Service with prayer and eulogies will be held at 6 to 7:30 p.m. (doors open 5 p.m.) on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, at Spitzker Miller Funeral Home, 1111 S. Main Street, Aberdeen, SD 57401, (605) 225-8223.
A Funeral Service will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, May 7, 2026, at Our Saviors Lutheran Church, 624 N. Jay Street, Aberdeen, SD.
The Committal Ceremony will be private for family members only.
In lieu of flowers, donations in honor of Dean L. Buntrock can be made to:
St. Olaf College
1520 St. Olaf Avenue
Northfield, MN 55057; or
Western Golf Association Evans Scholars Foundation
2501 Patriot Blvd
Glenview, IL 60026; or
The Vintage Club Employee Scholarship Fund
c/o The Desert Community Foundation
75-105 Merle Drive, Suite 300
Palm Desert, CA 92211
