Bush, Elwin Mason 1910-2002

BUSH, NEWTON, HOBELSBERGER

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 10/1/2009 at 07:57:04

Brooklyn (IA) Chronicle; Oct. 30, 2002

BUSH

Elwin Mason "Bus" Bush, 91, who faithfully served the Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department perhaps for longer than any volunteer firefighter has served in state history, died Monday, Oct. 21, 2002, at Grinnell Regional Medical Center of congestive heart failure.

A funeral was Thursday, Oct. 24, at Nevenhoven Funeral Home. The Rev. David Rogula officiated and served as musician. Special selections were "Amazing Grace" and "How Great Thou Art." Marilyn Kriegel was organist. Casket bearers were members of the Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department, including Fire Chief Gary McClenathan, Randy Williams, Larry Boesenberg, Kurt Hall, Mike Foels and Troy Meldrem.

Burial was in Brooklyn Memorial Cemetery, where the funeral procession was led by Brooklyn's first fire truck, a Studebaker that Mr. Bush drove to Chicago for its first outfitting with hoses and equipment in 1937.

A memorial fund has been established.

Mr. Bush was born Nov. 14, 1910, in Stuttgart, Ark., the son of Ira Eugene and Alice May (Newton) Bush. He lived there for two years before his family moved to Brooklyn in 1912. He graduated from Brooklyn High School in 1929.

In 1948, he married Rosa Hobelsberger in Brooklyn. The couple had met in Germany during World War II, in which Mr. Bush served in the U.S. Army.

He was a welder and blacksmith who started working with his father, and then continued to operate Bush Welding Shop in Brooklyn, where he was known for his generosity in helping repair and maintain equipment for friends.

Mr. Bush also served with the Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department for 60 years. He helped save the old grain elevator in the 1970s, and in his later years was named an honorary firefighter. He belonged to Grace United Methodist Church.

Surviving are a daughter, Donna Bush of Omaha, Neb.; two sons, Karl Bush of Cedar Rapids and Elwin Bush Jr. of Montezuma; a brother, Eugene Bush, and a sister, Ardis Bush, both of Sacramento, Calif.; and two grandsons, Mike Bush and David Bush.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Rosa, on Oct. 30, 1984; his parents; a brother, Donald; and a sister, Harriett.