ROBERT O. BUSSEY

ROBERT OWEN BUSSEY  
Died April 14, 2014 in Bradenton, FL. He was 94. Mr. Bussey, a resident of Falls Church, VA, and Bradenton, had a long and colorful career in the U.S. military and government services, fighting both America's hot and cold Wars. He was in Army intelligence during World War II and later stayed in the Army reserves. He was sent to Berlin to assess the threat from the Soviets when in 1961 they built a wall that divided the city in two. Assigned to Saigon, he would eventually helicopter off the U.S. embassy roof the last day of America's presence in Vietnam. Mr. Bussey was then posted to Iran, where he was present in the U.S. embassy in February 1979 the first time that Iranians stormed the facility. He retired to Falls Church in 1980 and later moved to Bradenton. An avid reader of military history, Mr. Bussey maintained a fondness for the U.S. Army and contributed to military charities. On getting promoted to Colonel from Lt. Colonel, he noted only that, to his great pleasure, the promotion would allow him to remain several additional years in the Army reserves before a required retirement. Mr. Bussey was born in Minneapolis, MN. and was emblematic of the generation that lived through America's Great Depression. Like millions of other Americans, he grew up on the low end of the income curve. And like many of his contemporaries, he credited two institutions with helping him up the ladder: the local public school system and the U.S. military. Mr. Bussey is survived by: his three sons, Robert Jr., a consultant in Greensboro, N.C.; Mark, a lawyer in Atlanta; and John, a journalist in New York; and two grandchildren. Mr. Bussey's former wife, Ellen M. Bussey, a labor arbitrator and economist with the U.S. Labor Department, died in 1996. The family held a private memorial.