Dad’s life story impressed me from the get-go. As a wee kid, I always announced to visitors, “My daddy can fix anything.”
Growing up in Arizona, he served as both student body president and senior class president in high school. He was only 16 at the time.
He jumped into college life at the University of Arizona (Bear Down, Wildcats) and earned his Delta Chi fraternity paddle. He blasted through engineering school, graduating at age 20. Wanting to serve his country, he enlisted in the Army Officer Candidate School, serving in Korea as a First Lieutenant. Once back in the States, he met, courted, and married Faith Voorhees. They set up housekeeping in Bagdad, Arizona, where they had their first two kids, me and Jeff, in that order.
Two years later, our small family moved to Upland, California. Dad worked at Kaiser Steel as a civil engineer. Eventually, there were five of us kids, all with different interests. Always the devoted parent, Dad led Boy Scout troops, trained packs of Girl Scouts in outdoor skills, and took us to swim meets and soccer games. He and Mom cultivated a beautiful pack of friends, all with good kids we loved playing with.
In 1968, he led a troop to the National Scout Jamboree. Great honor! Decades later, he organized a 55-mile trek through the Sierras that ended with an ascent and descent of Mt. Whitney with 13 of us in tow. He loved hiking and took various groups on weekend and week-long backpacking trips.
Being a devout Catholic, he was active in our local church, eventually serving as a deacon. He was also elected to the Chino Basin Municipal Water District, the Watermaster Board, and the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
By 1991, three of us kids called Santa Barbara our new hometown. We begged Dad and Mom to move here. He thought, “Why not,” and before we knew it, the mayor of Santa Barbara nudged him to apply for a job at the Montecito Water District, where he headed up a project at Jameson Dam. He and Mom bought a house in Carpinteria and soon fell in love with that community.
Their favorite hangs were Esau’s or Hugo’s for breakfast. My favorite breakfast in Carp was Dad’s gluten-free pancakes — delish! He loved to cook for others and would make his famous cowboy cookies for his loved ones.
Knowing his love of hiking, sister Mia egged him into joining the Montecito Trails Foundation, where he served as the vice president of operations for more than 15 years, overseeing the clearing of 150 miles of trail.
For his 70th birthday, as he was coming down one of his beloved Montecito hiking trails, a crowd of 70 loved ones surprised him with a giant check for $15,000 so that he could construct the Girard Trail, linking the McMenemy and Cold Spring trails together. Dad and brother Daniel then constructed a lookout bench of natural boulders just off the trail. A plaque commemorating his contribution to Santa Barbara is anchored behind the bench.
Not to sit around in retirement in his eighties, in 2010, he co-chaired a $450,000 fundraising project to bring the defunct Franklin Trail back into use for the Carpinteria community. This included engineering a bridge, clearing the old trail, and adding fencing around Carpinteria High. Around this time, this ardent Trailmaster was selected as one of the Independent’s Local Heroes.
He was often seen on Franklin Trail with his family, multiple dogs, and his good pal Lynn Carlson. Sometimes, we all just strolled the Carp Bluffs.
He always seemed drawn to doing something that was in service. After his wife of 60 years passed, he and Betty Stone became good friends and volunteered monthly at the Carpinteria Valley History Museum. They also loved sitting in their chairs on Linden, greeting visitors to Carpinteria.
Because of his famous red onesie Halloween costume, he garnered the nickname “Budman.” His sons, Jeff, Brad, and Daniel, continually looked for ways to tease their “old man.” Never to be outdone, Budman always came up with the instant quip, which then had to be texted to the rest of us. I collected them, calling them “Popisms.” Priceless.
Most of his quips centered around one major theme: pie. Pie was king in our household. Cherry was his favorite, but he could never resist a hearty piece of my sister Mia’s lemon meringue pie. When asked if he wanted some pie once, he stated, “Well, it wouldn’t hurt the morale.”
Even in his nineties, he trudged daily on the Carp Bluffs with his one-eyed dog, Chappie, or scooted around town with his devoted pack of walking pals.
Bud is survived by five kids, their spouses, three grandkids, and three great-grandkids. He passed in the early hours of January 21. He was just shy of 95 years old.
A memorial mass will be held at St. Joe’s Catholic Church on Linden Avenue in Carpinteria on February 15 at 1:30 p.m., followed by a reception. And, yes, pie will be served.