The Blue Bird Bus

This post is a special dedication to a man; that I honestly feel is the greatest man, aside from Jesus, to have ever lived. I admit to some level of prejudice, as this man is my father.

How many of you have ever seen a school bus that was made by Blue Bird Bus Company? If that bus was built in the Mt Pleasant, IA plant from 1973 to 1999, there is a 99% chance my father helped build it. He did take two weeks off every year from the factory to meet his obligations as a member of the National Guard. He also always used one of his perfect attendance days off on this birthday. He would also use these perfect attendance days off that he would earn for other family events, such as the High School sporting events that my brother and I participated in. Other than that, he was there every day.

He suffered from arthritis for about the last 15 years of his life. So he took 800mg of Ibuprofen, three times a day, to help him build those busses. One of the few days that my mom did not ask him how his day went is quite an interesting story. He always answered that question as fine, one day when she forgot to ask, he brought it to her attention that she had forgot. Why? He had spent ½ the day at the hospital having staples put in his head to fix a cut he got while at work. After having the staples put in he finished the day, and went back the next.

My father died of bone cancer on March 13, 1999, the day after he turned 56. I don’t know a lot about bone cancer, except that it is one of the most painful cancers there is. The cancer was not discovered until after he broke his back in Feb of 1999. It had deteriorated a vertebra in his back to the point that a simple wrong turn at work broke it.

When he was taken into the hospital, by my mother, on March 13, he was being seen for side effects of the Morphine. Side effects that he had postponed being treated for, so that he could be at home on his birthday. His stomach had swollen over the last few weeks, and he made a joke about knowing that the swelling was not pregnancy while reading the pre-X-ray information. He went into cardiac arrest as soon as the X-ray was over, and died 45 min later.

Blue Bird Midwest shut down the factory floor for 15 minutes during his funeral. I spoke with well over 500 people at the visitation. He positively touched the life of everyone he knew. He was always smiling, never complaining too much about anything. He build his life on the values of hard work, love, integrity, and a strong commitment to our family.

So, when you see a Blue Bird school bus, think for a moment. Think about a man that lived a life of total self-sacrifice toward God, family, and country. May he forever rest in peace, with our Lord Jesus Christ.



One political note:
Can this happen in the USA today? Can a man who is now 18 years of age in 2007, barely graduate from High School, receive no more formal education and live a life like this? A life that through nothing more than hard manual labor, love of God, family and country would able to leave behind him a story like this? Leaving his wife in a position where she can enter semi-retirement at the age of 58. Turning her full-time job in for a part-time one at the local Wal-Mart, for fun money?

I say the chance of that is zero…
Blue Bird no longer has a factory in Mt. Pleasant, IA.
Is this really the land of opportunity we claim it to be?