Wilkie Lloyd Bush, Sr.

WILKIE LLOYD BUSH, SR.

March 23, 1918 – January 20, 2021

GOSHEN- Wilkie Lloyd Bush, Sr., 102, of Goshen died Wednesday January 20, 2021 at Greencroft in Goshen.  He was born March 23, 1918 in Alma, Michigan to Benjamin H. and Estelle (McQuie) Bush, Sr.  Wilkie grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  He married Jean C. Stutzman in Elkhart on March 28, 1942.  She died March 5, 2002.  He then married Betty Jean Broadbent in Goshen on December 10, 2005.  She died March 14, 2018.  Wilkie was preceded in death by his parents, a son, David A. Bush; 2 brothers, Lt. Col. Benjamin H. Bush, Jr., Dale Bush; 3 sisters; Margaret Tucker, Virginia Youngblood, Barbara Sena.

     Surviving is a son, Wilkie L. (Bud) Bush, Jr. (Esther) of Goshen, six grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren and a sister, Grace Stonehouse of Venice, FL.  Mr. Bush graduated from Creston High School in Grand Rapids in 1935 and from Michigan State University in 1939 with a degree in Electrical Engineering and from a two-year night course at Notre Dame in executive development.

     He was employed at CTS in Elkhart from 1939 until his retirement in December of 1976 as Vice President of Supporting Services.  He held three patents.  He was the last remaining executive from management back in the formative years when the background was laid that resulted in CTS becoming a worldwide corporation supplying electronic components to a wide variety of industries.

     He was written up in “Who’s Who in the Midwest” in 1966 and was currently a Registered Professional Engineer.  He has been a member of the National Honor Society, American Society of Quality, United Way Budget Committee, United Way Health Foundation Vice President, Trustee of the University of Indianapolis, Director Emeritus of Elkhart General Hospital, Trustee Emeritus of Otterbein Home (largest retirement community in Ohio), received the Service to Youth award twice from the Elkhart YMCA, The Scouter’s Key and Order of the Arrow from the Boy Scouts.  He was a member of the CTS Quarter Century Club and a charter member of the Mr. and Mrs. Club.

     Mr. Bush did a lot of traveling and family camping across the United States, enjoyed hunting and fishing, flower gardening, photography, and woodworking.  He was a highly successful deer hunter with primitive weapons, finally quitting at the age of 87.

     Mr. Bush devoted a lot of his time to church and civic activities.  Beginning in 1945 he was extensively involved in all aspects of his local church and in its general conference.  He was on the YMCA Board for nineteen years, serving as a treasurer and then as president while the new building was planned, financed, and built.  He was on the Hospital Board for twelve years serving as Secretary and on the Executive Committee, and nineteen years on the Board of Otterbein Home Retirement Community.  He served on the YMCA-YWCA Joint Properties Board, joint management committee and was treasurer of the YMCA endowment fund.  During WWII he taught night school classes in electronics and math for Purdue University.

     He was member of the former Castle United Methodist Church which is now part of the Faith United Methodist Church where he has served on the original building committee, the administrative board, and the finance committee.

     A private celebration of life service for Wilkie will be held at 1:00 p.m. Saturday January 30, 2021 at Walley-Mills-Zimmerman Funeral Home with the family.  Pastor John Hogsett from Faith United Methodist Church will preside, and entombment will follow at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens in Osceola.

     Memorial contributions may be given to the church or to Greencroft Communities in Goshen.

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