Armand Duseau Jr.

1935 - 2012

NORTHAMPTON - After a five-year courageous battle with cancer, The Trash King of Hampshire County, Armand (Buddy) Duseau Jr., died on Nov. 7, 2012 in his home on Rockland Heights Road surrounded by his family.
He was born in Northampton on Feb. 21, 1935 to Lillian (Bellunduno) and Armand Duseau Sr. and lived here his entire life. He attended Sacred Heart Elementary School and graduated from Northampton High School in 1954, where he starred on the 1953 Championship football team under legendary coach Edward Buckley, his first mentor and hero.
Buddy enlisted in the Army National Guard while still in high school, graduated from the Massachusetts Military Academy in 1955 as a second lieutenant and served his enlistment as a squad leader in the 104th Massachusetts Infantry.
In 1957, he married Nancy Parker, his high school sweetheart and Northampton High's head majorette, with whom he shared a 55-year union of romance, mutual devotion and communal pride.
Throughout his youth, Bud worked in the family trash collection business, Duseau Trucking, and when his parents decided to retire, Buddy and two high school friends, Steve Cahillane and Bill Woods, bought Duseau Trucking and created Calduwood, the dominant trash collection business of Hampshire County for over 20 years. Calduwood built and operated the first landfill in New England on Glendale Road in Northampton and the first transfer station at the BPW barns on Locust Street. It also developed the Silk Mill complex in Florence. Buddy was the driving force in the building of 17 transfer stations in the Pioneer Valley.
When his friends pursued other professional interests, Buddy worked in the trash collection and recycling business 65 years from 1947 to 2012. He was a pioneer in finding ways to reuse and recycle discarded material and made "Zero Waste" his mantra and his goal. He sponsored and invested in many projects and experiments to turn trash into fuel and insisted it was doable. "What can be conceptualized can be accomplished," he always insisted.
Buddy and Nancy Duseau were active in numerous civic endeavors and local charitable programs. Youth sports, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, American Red Cross, and the schools in Northampton, Hatfield and Easthampton benefitted from Bud's largess.
Buddy was active in the Jaycees, Friends of Northampton Football, and the Chamber of Commerce, of which he was one time president. He was particularly proud of his participation in the effort to build the Northampton Parking Garage and his service on Gov. Michael Dukakis's Task Force on Waste Management where he helped shape public policy on environmental issues.
In Bud's leisure, he enjoyed family events and shared adventures with his children and grandchildren, particularly at the Duseau Lodge on Lake Sunapee, N.H., where his annual Fourth of July celebration, provided food, fun and fireworks for hundreds. He was a voracious reader of biographies, history and scientific journals, and often expressed his disdain for fiction. "Facts," he'd stress, "I'm only interested in facts." Bud loved diners and was a regular and a favorite of the wait staff at Miss Flo's, Kathy's, Look and the Bluebonnet.
Besides his wife, Buddy leaves his daughters and sons-in-law, Beth and Todd Rossi of South Deerfield, and Pam and Richard Carnall of Hatfield; his sons and daughters-in-law, Dave and Mary Duseau of Hatfield and Paul and Renee Duseau of Conway, as well as his 10 grandchildren, Grace and Sofia Rossi, Sam and Ali Carnall, Danielle, Isabelle, Douglas, Lexie, Beckie and Brie Duseau. He also leaves his siblings, Doraleen McArthur and Roberta Harrington, and Richard and Michael Duseau, as well as many nephews, nieces and cousins, who saw Buddy as the wise and generous family patriarch.
Calling hours will be held on Sunday at the Czelusniak Funeral Home of Northampton from 1 to 5 p.m.
The family invites you to join them on Monday at 11:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Grace Church, School Street, Hatfield, to celebrate the Liturgy of Christian Burial for Buddy. Burial, with military honors, will follow in St. Mary's Cemetery in Northampton.
Donations in Buddy's memory may be made to the Cancer Care Center at Cooley Dickinson, c/o Cooley Dickinson Hospital Development Office, 30 Locust St., P.O. Box 329, Northampton, MA 01061-0329.