Donald S. "Bud" Beesley

Donald S. "Bud" Beesley, a devoted family man and electrical engineer who worked on groundbreaking projects in the nuclear power industry during a career that lasted three decades, died Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012, of a ruptured aneurysm.
He died peacefully at his Kennewick home, surrounded by his family.
Beesley, known affectionately as That S.O.B. (short for sweet old Bud), was born Oct. 23, 1927, in Rexburg, the second child and only son of Seymour and Oriole Beesley.
He grew up during the Depression, helping his resourceful family make ends meet on their small farm in the rural Southeastern Idaho town.
Using what local materials they could cobble together, he and his father worked to build the family house that still stands in the center of Rexburg today. As a teenager, he took a shining to mathematics, earning A's in the subject in high school and hinting at his future career path.
In May 1945, a month before he was to graduate from Madison High School and with World War II raging in the Pacific Theater, Beesley enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He was 17.
After completing basic training, he was assigned to the USS General Leroy Eltinge, a transport ship that was on its way to Japan when atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that August. He then split his service between post-war Japan and South Korea, rising to the rank of machinist's mate third class.
Following discharge in 1947, he returned to Southeastern Idaho and worked as a farmhand and mechanic. He was hired on as a security guard at the newly created National Reactor Testing Station (now the Idaho National Laboratory). He worked his way up in the ranks as far as he could go without a degree. With the guidance of Westinghouse friends and managers in 1954, he decided to return to college to study engineering.
He earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Idaho in 1959. While there, he met and married a Moscow woman, Margaret Teare.
In January 1960, Beesley was hired by Westinghouse at INL. The couple settled in Idaho Falls. From there, his career in the nuclear power industry took his family to Yuba City, Calif.; Searcy, Ark.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Las Vegas, Nev.
Along the way, he and Margaret had three sons, Brian, Craig and Shawn.
In 1968, Beesley returned to Westinghouse and INEL, where he was a manager at ECF.
ECF was visited often by Adm. Hyman G. Rickover. Beesley greatly admired Rickover and often asked the admiral for divine guidance while playing golf.
In January 1978, Beesley transferred to Hanford, in south central Washington state, where he worked as a senior electrical engineer in the 300 Area. He retired in 1988, turning his energies to his family, golfing, painting, fishing with his friend, Jim, and tinkering in his shop.
He is survived by his loving and devoted wife, Margaret, at the family home; three sons, Brian and his wife Valerie of Lewiston; Craig and his wife Stacey Harrington of Kenmore, Wash., and Shawn of Seattle; granddaughters, Caitlin and Dana Beesley of Lewiston; and a sister, Bonnie Stevens of Idaho Falls.
He was preceded in death by a sister, Norma Ann Parkinson.
At his request, his body has been cremated and no funeral will be conducted. There will be a celebration of his life for his family and friends later this spring.
The family suggests memorials be made to the hospice of one's choice.