Beloved local couple bids goodbye

DALTON VITT/DAILY FORUM
Bob and Betty Bush, who both had long careers at Northwest Missouri State University, and whose contributions have had a lasting impact on both the university and Maryville communities, are moving to Des Moines, Iowa, in order to be closer to family.

After long careers at Northwest Missouri State University and a lifetime spent living in and serving the Maryville community, Bob and Betty Bush have decided that the time has finally come to move on.

The Bushes, both of whom grew up in the area, and who spent more than five decades combined at Northwest, will soon leave the area for Des Moines, Iowa, in order to be closer to family members there.

“We have two children (in Des Moines),” Betty said. “So we’re moving toward the children and grandchildren, and we have one (child) in Tulsa, so we’ll keep the highway hot. We just decided it was time to be proactive rather than inactive.”

Bob Bush served as executive assistant to the president at Northwest after working for NASA and spending several years with the St. Joseph School District. He is a Bearcat alumnus who graduated from Northwest in 1957.

Betty graduated from Northwest in 1960 and started her higher education career at Stephens College before returning in 1983 as a professor. She won the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education in 1992 and is also a recipient of Northwest’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Service.

“Best career in the world,” Betty said. “I was on faculty, and Bob was on the administrative side, so we had some interesting discussions once in a while. The relationships with kids — the kids that go to Northwest are darn good kids, and that’s overlooked so many times — the relationships with them and my colleagues were wonderful. It was a very enjoyable experience for a lot of years.”

Both Bushes said the most vivid memories they share from their tenure on the Maryville campus revolve around the catastrophic Administration Building fire in 1979. The fire nearly led to Northwest being shut down, but instead vaulted the institution into a new era marked by the construction of the B.D. Owens Library and what is now the Houston Center for the Performing Arts.

“It was an unbelievable night, and a lot of people thought, ‘this is it; they’re going to shut us down,’” Bob Bush said. “Bob Owens was the president then, and we had a cabinet meeting at 3 the next morning when the fire was under control. They said ‘tomorrow will be another regular day at Northwest,’ and I think that whole concept of ‘it’s another day’ was so important to all of us.”

The university also carried on with its alternative fuels energy project while resurrecting the heavily damaged Administration Building and moving forward with other new construction, changing the face of the campus. Bob Bush played a key role in all of those developments.

“It was a pivotal point, that’s for sure,” Betty Bush said.

Other treasured memories, said the Bushes, include the Bearcats’ first Division II national football championship in 1998.

Betty retired from Northwest in 2002, and Bob followed suit in 2006. Betty remains a board member for the Northwest Foundation.

In addition to his university career, Bob Bush has been extremely active in civic affairs and served through the years on numerous boards and committees while supporting a variety of charitable, philanthropic and economic development initiatives.

In recognition of their years of service, the university created the Drs. Bob and Betty Bush Scholarship, which provides financial assistance to students pursuing degrees in elementary education.

“Bob’s and Betty’s impacts are prodigious. Lifelong impacts,” said University President John Jasinski. “They have created positive and inspirational interactions and results across a litany of Northwest-related beneficiaries: students, faculty and staff; local, regional, national and international communities; and alumni and donors.

“The specifics behind the impacts of these beneficiaries are, in effect, legendary, though I know that Bob and Betty do not see it that way. They see their servant leadership as simply something that one should do.”

After so many years in Maryville and on campus, the Bushes say they will miss their many Maryville friends and the shared affections of a tightly knit community.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s not easy,” Betty said. “We have wonderful friends here, and we’ve been so connected to the university, so we’re going to miss that.”

Although they will now live about 140 miles from Maryville, the Bushes plan to remain connected to Northwest and visit Maryville as often as their schedule allows. And Bearcat season football tickets are still a distinct possibility.

Still, it’s not the same as living here.

“I’ll miss just being kept informed on what’s going on at the university and that sort of thing,” Betty said. “So the vehicles that Dr. Jasinski has put into place, such as his weekly article and that kind of thing, helps people in the outlying areas stay in touch with Northwest.”

The couple plans to move July 5 and will spend the next couple of weeks saying farewell to longtime acquaintances.

“It’s very emotional and very moving,” Bob Bush said. “That’s what makes it hard to leave, because you think of all those memories and what people have done to make the university what it is today. It set a standard that we expect to find when we go somewhere else, and I don’t know if we will or not.”