Ugene Samuel Bond (1918 – 2003)

BOND, NEFF, ROBERTS, NORTON, AHLERS, ENGWALL

Posted By: Karen Brewer (email)
Date: 7/25/2010 at 16:40:09

Unknown Newspaper

U.S. Bond
Ugene Samuel “Gene” Bond, son of Ulysses Samuel and Lillian Mae Bond, was born June 17, 1918, and died May 28, 2003, at Windy Acres Care Center in Forest Lake, Minn.. He was 84.

A native of Osceola, he received his education in Osceola schools and graduated from the Elgin Watchmaking College in Elgin, Ill. in 1939 at the age of 21. As a young boy, at the age of 9, he contracted polio which nearly took his life and left him with a badly scarred right shoulder diminishing his ability to raise his right arm above a 45-degree angle. This made his chosen profession of watch making an even greater challenge.

Financial times were difficult in the late 1930’s as well and his pursuit of his lifelong career in jewelry and watch making was assisted and made possible by a scholarship to the watch making school from the Osceola Masonic Lodge of which he, his father, Ulysses, and his uncle, Lou Bond, were lifetime members and supporters. His mother, Lillian also scrimped and saved to help pay for the tuition and fees.

He operated U.S. Bond Jewelry for more than 50 of the 103 years of its operation in Osceola and was honored in Who’s Who of Iowa Businessmen as one of Iowa’s oldest operating businesses. He retired and sold the business in 1992. The jewelry store was located on the north side of the Osceola square in the present location of The Mall-Berry Tree.

Mr. Bond married Velma Neff (later changing her first name to Valerie) on Sept. 20, 1942. Four children were born of this union; Susan Bond-Roberts who lives near Lake Tahoe, Calif., Ugene Samuel “Sam” Bond, Jr. of Forest Lake, Minn., Jeffrie Bond of Grangeville, Idaho; and Julie Norton of Altamonte Springs, Fla. Mr. and Mrs. Bond divorced in 1973.

He married Edna Ahlers on June 11, 1977, together they operated the jewelry store in Osceola until they retired to Worthington in 1992. Gene’s only sibling, a sister Maxine Engwall, lives in Hutchinson, Minn.

He and his first wife Velma (Valerie) were members of the First Christian Church.
Mr. Bond dedicated his entire life to carrying on the family jewelry and watch making business tradition founded by his father in 1889 and, after his father’s death in 1923, continued by his mother, Lillian, until her death in 1943. He was committed to the Osceola business community for five decades of his life, to his family, and to his staunch adherence to virtues of honesty, integrity, and sound character. He was a quiet, private man, recognizing the value of providing service to the Osceola community and in the quality of enduring, life-long friendships of which he had many.

Mr. Bond was preceded in death by his parents; his second wife, Edna, on January 11, 1999; and his first wife, Velma (Valerie), on Dec. 5, 1999.

In addition to his sons and daughters and sister, Mr. Bond is survived by grandchildren and great-grandchildren; other relatives and friends. Funeral services were held June 2 at Mattson Funeral Home in Forest Lake, Minn. A private, family graveside service was held with interment at Maple Hill Cemetery in Osceola on June 4, 2003.

The Bond family would appreciate memorial contributions being made to the Osceola Masonic Lodge.

Headstone Photo
 

Clarke Obituaries maintained by Brenda White.
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