Valoris Glenn (Bill) Bushnell

Valoris Glenn (Bill) Bushnell, 85, passed away peacefully on Dec. 7, 2023, in North Pole, Alaska. 

Bill was born on May 20, 1938, in Troy, Montana as the second child to Valoris Fred (Bill) and Ada Belle (Duvall) Bushnell. With elder sister Laura Mae and younger brother Gene, they moved between Troy and eastern Montana logging and ranching. 

Bill graduated from Troy High School on his 18th birthday and was sworn into the United States Marine Corps less than a month later on June 13, 1956. While serving in Camp Del Mar in Southern California, Bill met and soon married the love of his life, Patricia Joanne Daly who was originally from Minnesota. 

After being discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps on March 13, 1959, they married in Bonners Ferry, Idaho on March 20, 1959 and soon after started raising their family of five between the years of 1960 and 1966 while following jobs in the Northwest and East Coast where Bill logged, mined and re-enlisted serving as a United States Army medic assigned to Walter Reed Hospital. 

He also worked the rail system in Montana with Great Northern, Burlington Northern and Amtrak. In both the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army, Bill served with distinction and was always proud to be an AMERICAN! 

Bill and the family moved to Alaska in 1978 and for the next three decades children married, grandchildren started arriving and jobs took him all over the state of Alaska. 

With his plethora of experiences in a variety of locations, he began writing and self publishing fiction novels including Recall, Border Patrol, Rescue, The Tenderfoot, and Beyond the Northwest. Bill enjoyed telling stories, hauling in silver salmon and halibut, working with wood at all stages, and having the '29 hand' in cribbage. 

He racked many miles on multiple roads trips up and down the Alcan, the Alaska Highway and criss-crossed the United States where there were always family members to visit or some handyman task that needed an extra hand. 

In the months preceding his death, many of those family members made their way to Fairbanks to sit and share stories with Bill including his brother Gene Bushnell.

Bill is preceded in death by his parents, Valoris (Bill) and Ada Belle Bushnell; sister Laura Mae McNaughton; and his wife of 52 years, Patricia Joanne Bushnell. 

He is survived by his brother, Gene Bushnell of Landusky, Montana; all five children - Kelly Bushnell, Terry (Scott) Elmer, Russ (Sue) Bushnell, Stacy (Karl) Altepeter and Inky (Shauna) Bushnell; along with 17 grandchildren, 36 great-grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.