John Buck - A Life Well Lived

May 12, 1907 – May 13, 2008

05/29/2008 - John Buck, known and loved by multitudes in Colorado, the Midwest, Arizona, and elsewhere, passed away on May 13, 2008, a few hours after his 101th birthday. He died peacefully and content with his life.

   John was energetic and hard-working, adventurous, curious, and lived his life with gusto. He was good natured and outgoing.  He was always generous and giving, helping people and making friends wherever he went.

  He was born on May 12, 1907 and grew up on a farm in Illinois. He went to college in Mount Morris IL, played on the college football team, then went to work in the post office there, walking more than 20 miles a day carrying mail. He made friends with people on his route and helped out elderly and sick folks along the way. In return, he was kept well supplied with home-baked goodies from appreciative residents. 

  In 1929, John married a pretty schoolteacher from Iowa, Zelda Hoffman, in the famous "Little Brown Church in the Vale," and the couple settled in Mount Morris. They had two children, Arden and Mary Lynn. 

  After his daily mail route, John went home to care for the farm, pushing a plow/cultivator by hand. Not content with all of that, he started and ran a thriving landscaping business. 

  Early on, John became a formidable poker player. He was active in the Sportsman's Club, Kiwanis and Lions Clubs. He was also an active fisherman, making yearly pilgrimages to Wisconsin with friends and sometimes family. He loved hunting and his beloved hunting dogs.

  Upon retirement in 1968, the couple moved to Colorado, where they lived for 30 years near Rollinsville. There he bought and sold old mining claims and constantly prowled the countryside, exploring, gathering mushrooms, making friends, helping people who needed it, and creating art from gnarled wood. He gathered and cut an enormous amount of wood - enough for many years into the future.

  For several years he adopted the entire CU basketball team, attending games and inviting them up to his mountain home for evenings of food and companionship. He also started an informal poker club, and thereby developed lifelong friendships. 

  He volunteered at the Nederland Visitors Center, and also made weekly trips to Boulder to pick up and distribute food to needy mountain folks. 

  John and Zelda traveled a lot in their motor home. In summers, they made expeditions to the Yukon and Alaska to explore and fish. In the winter they went to Padre Island in Texas, or caravanned down to Mexico. Always, they made friends along the way and helping out - perhaps spending an afternoon chopping wood for an elderly woman living alone, or Zelda would cook something good to offer to the campers next door. 

  They took a grand tour of Asia in 1970, visiting son Arden and his wife Betsy who were then living in Korea. 

  In his seventies, he went on a white-water rafting trip on a wild stretch of the Salmon River in Idaho, the oldest person to do that. Along the way, their boat hit a rock and flipped over. Everyone had life preservers and the rest of the party swam to shore. But John was trapped under the boat, unable to breathe. Eventually, the raft hit another rock and flipped back over again, and he was saved.

  When Zelda got Alzheimer's, John cared for her lovingly and constantly for several years until she passed away in 1990. He continued to make frequent trips back to Mount Morris and Iowa, and spent winters in Mesa Arizona, close to daughter Mary Lynn, and made more friends.

  On one of his trips back to Mount Morris, he renewed acquaintance with the widow of a poker partner from 60 years earlier, Ruth Hartman. Their acquaintance blossomed, leading to marriage in 1996 (he was 89 at the time). They then moved back to Mount Morris. 

  Much of John's good health and longevity can be attributed to his hard work - walking all day plus maintaining a farm and landscape business in Mount Morris, then walking, working, and cutting wood while in Colorado. Even more important factors making for his long and satisfying life were his good natured, outgoing personality, his sense of humor, his open, inquiring mind and positive outlook, and his ability to make friends everywhere he went.

  John is survived by his wife Ruth of Mt. Morris IL, son Arden (wife Betsy) of Nederland, daughter Mary Lynn (Jack) Gilmour of Mesa, AZ; grandchildren Vicky (Robert) Bray, Brian (Karen) Rothermel, and Nancy (Patrick) Gilmour, all of IL, Jim (Trina) Buck of Louisville CO, Dina (Tyler) Buck-Thompson of Boulder, Todd Buck of Boulder; and ten great grandchildren.

  A memorial will be held June 21 at 3:00, at the Presbyterian Church in Nederland. Contributions in honor of John may be made to his favorite cause (which is now in desperate need): Gilpin County Food Bank, 2960 Dory Rd. #100, Black Hawk, CO 80403.