Robert H. Pusey, 89

Wednesday, September 8, 2004

Robert H. Pusey, 89, of Glenns Ferry died Monday, Aug. 30, 2004, at the Elmore Medical Center Nursing Home in Mountain Home.

Services were arranged by Summers Funeral Homes, McMurtrey Chapel of Mountain Home. A visitation was held on Friday evening in Mountain Home, with services on Saturday, Sept. 4, at the Glenns Ferry Methodist Church. Graveside services followed at Glenn Rest cemetery.

He was a partner in the Rosevear Hardware Company of Glenns Ferry for almost 50 years before it closed in the 1980s. In the beginning, he partnered with George Rosevear and John Rosevear. Later, Bob's wife, Esther, continued the partnership. Bob trained all six Pusey children to do various tasks in the operation of the store.

Bob was the youngest of five children born to George N. and Lottie Huse Pusey. He was born on April 9, 1915, at Des Moines, Iowa, but his parents had previously lived on a homestead on Lime Creek, just below Pine, Idaho. Bob was the great-grandson of early Idaho pioneer Benjamin Jackson Nichols of Pine.

The Pusey family moved around the country in Bob's pre-school days, then settled in Glenns Ferry when Bob was in the second grade.

Bob was always a hard worker. As a young boy he started delivering milk for the Wichers. After high school he worked for Idaho Power, then went to work for the Rosevear Hardware Company in December 1936. In WWII, he worked at the Simplot Lumber box factory in Caldwell. Then in 1946, Bob and his family moved back to Glenns Ferry and continued at Rosevear Hardware Company.

He was always ready to help others figure out how to fix something, and was often repairing appliances and televisions for his customers in the evenings, his family noted.

Bob was a member of the Elks, the Glenns Ferry Chamber of Commerce, the Elmore County Hospital Board, and the Glenns Ferry United Methodist Church.

He was a quiet man but had a wonderful sense of humor, and was always "pulling someone's leg" with a joke, his family said. He liked to hunt and fish. He enjoyed making and repairing things in his shop at home, and usually had some kind of a project underway. He loved to travel to see new places, and to visit his family and old friends.

Bob married Esther Louise Rosevear on June 2, 1939, in Pocatello, and they celebrated their 60th anniversary in 1999.

They raised their six children in Glenns Ferry, and are survived by four of them: Carol Barnum; Linda McDonald and her husband, Dennis; Bruce and his wife, Judy; and Richard; as well as ten grandchildren, three great-grand- children, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Preceding him in death were: his parents; his wife, Esther; two infant sisters; his sister, Mae Walker; his brother, George "Herb" Pusey; his children, Rita May and Jim Pusey; and a grandson, Joshua May.

Contributions in his name may be made to the Glenns Ferry Historical Museum, P.O.Box 910, Glenns Ferry, 83623.