Lawrence Gilman "Bud" Moon III

Lawrence Gilman "Bud" Moon III, loving husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, brother-in-law, son-in-law, friend, mentor and visionary community servant, died Friday, Feb. 29, 2008, after a brief battle with lung cancer.

He would have been 82 on March 19, and embodied the qualities described in Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation.”

A funeral service will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, March 8, in the handicapped accessible auditorium at the Sandpoint Events Center - the restored Sandpoint High School - at Pine Street and Euclid Avenue.

Bud was a lifelong resident of Bonner County, and he followed the lead of his parents, Lawrence G. Pike Moon II and Hazel Rice Moon, into community service for the region and the country that they loved so much.

Bud, like so many of his classmates, was a World War II Navy veteran, serving in the Admiralty Islands of the South Pacific.

He was active in local and state politics, as were his parents. Bud was also a leader in the founding of Schweitzer Basin Ski Resort, Bonner County Museum, Pend Oreille Arts and Crafts Festival, Dover Water District, Panhandle State Bank and Wooden Boat Festival.

Most recently he served first as a council member and then mayor of East Hope from 2001 until his death. Bud was proud of the work that city council accomplished during his tenure, especially the establishment of a fire department.

Bud was a natural-born boatman. His family had a home on Bottle Bay, and as a boy, he and his sisters delivered vegetables from the family garden to neighbors by boat.

Young post-war Bud thought of becoming a marine diesel mechanic on the Pacific Coast, but instead he remained close to Lake Pend Oreille, assuming ownership of Moon Mortuary in Sandpoint when his parents retired after 26 years in business.

Throughout his lifetime, Bud lived on or within view of the lake, and he owned many boats including one of the first sailboats of the lake's modern boating era. His children were alternately delighted and dismayed when he bought or traded for a new or “new” boat and then sold or traded it away again.

In his later years, Bud restored battered wooden boats to their original beauty. When no longer able to do the physical labor, he built miniature wooden boats in his living room, including a scale model of a WWII era tugboat constructed from the boat builder's plans that he worked months to locate.

Bud's greatest legacy may lie in his love of family and friends.

In 1946 he married Betty Palmer, whose father, Tom Palmer, owned a Kootenai logging business with his brothers Johnny and Al. Betty's mother was Hazel Harper Palmer, who taught fifth grade at Farmin School for many years.

After Bud attended the University of Idaho, Bud and Betty graduated from the San Francisco College of Mortuary Science and shared in running Moon Mortuary until their six children began arriving. Then, Betty stayed at home in the house they built at Rocky Point, where Bud did most of the construction when not working as a funeral director and ambulance driver.

Their young children believed for years that coffee tables and table saws are both proper living room furniture.

When Betty died of cancer at age 43 in 1971 before their 25th wedding anniversary, Bud faced single parenthood. He was blessed to find a loving life partner in his beloved Susan Baldwin, and he gained a young son in 7-year-old Brandon. Bud and Susan married in 1972.

Bud sold the funeral home after 20 years, a business that had led him to professional leadership at the state and regional levels. He and Susan raised children, established a land development business and were active in the community together.

Bud helped raise not only his children, but over the years, provided a home to young people who needed support, a practice that he learned from his parents' example during the Great Depression. There were always extra chairs around the dinner table.

Bud and Susan worked side by side on civic projects such as the Bonner County Museum, the first 10 years of the Pend Oreille Arts and Crafts Festival, prior to POAC, and Wooden Boat Festival.

Susan became an enthusiastic boater. In 1996 they moved to East Hope, and in 2007, they celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary.

Bud frequently expressed gratitude for his life in Bonner County and for his family and friends, both lifelong and new. He was excellent company and always made visitors feel welcome, whether to his living room, his workshop or his boat.

Bud was a good storyteller and a good listener; he had a strong sense of responsibility and a desire to help. Always a welcome advisor to his children, his final advice the evening before he died was to be kind to everyone because you do not know the burdens they bear.

Survivors include his wife, Susan, in Hope; sister Catherine Littlefield and her husband, Gene, of Sandpoint; daughters Christine Hengstler and her husband, Heinz, of Tacoma, Wash., Corrine Cookman and her husband, Eric, of Coeur d'Alene, Sally Moon of Sacramento, Calif., Judy Labrie and her husband, Kent, of Hope; and sons Patrick Moon and his wife, Candis, of Sagle and Brandon Moon of Sandpoint; 17 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; Susan's parents, Bill and Merilyn Baldwin of Merced, Calif.; nine sisters- and brothers-in-law; and 34 nieces and nephews .

He was preceded in death by his parents; a son, Lawrence “Pete” Gilman Moon IV; and his sister, Charlotte Darling.

It is truly his legacy that the younger people in his life, whether related or not, look to his example for a model for how to live.

Bud felt much gratitude to many people who helped him in recent years. He was proud of the emergency care given to him by the professional emergency medical technicians of East Hope Fire Department. The family wishes to thank Drs. Thomas Lawrence, Thomas Leavitt and Ron Jenkins and the staff at Bonner General Hospital in Sandpoint, who cared for Bud and were thoughtful of the family's needs as well.

The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, donations in Bud's name be made to Community Cancer Services at www.communitycancerservices.org, at 1718 Cedar St. in Sandpoint; Bonner County Museum; or Spokane Shriner's Hospital.

Lakeview Funeral Home is handling arrangements. Visit Bud's memorial at www.lakeviewfuneral.com and sign his online guest book.