The Mountain Home Education Foundation (MHEF) has announced the 2017 Hall of Honor inductees and will be hosting its 13th annual Night of Honors on Thursday. The Mountain Home Education Foundation’s mission is to honor former Mountain Home Public School alumni, faculty, support staff and community partners for outstanding service to the Mountain Home Public Schools and Community.
In part one of a four-part series KTLO, Classic Hits 101.7 and The Boot News highlights Faithful Hero Award recipient Hal E. Bud Bodenhamer. Bodenhamer devoted his life to community service and was a key leader in Baxter Countys landmark achievements of the 20th Century. He was especially instrumental in guiding the turning points for progress by Mountain Homes schools in its relocation from College Street to its present location as a board member during the time.
Bodenhamer’s son, Bob, says one of his father’s most notable accomplishments was his work with Baxter Regional Medical Center.
Listen:
Bud Bodenhamer was born July 7, 1925, in West Plains, to Rudolph and Naomi Leonard Bodenhamer. He married Rosemary Fritsch in 1946, in Mountain Home, and died at age 83 on 2008, at BRMC, the hospital he championed for many years.
Bob says he and his family were happy to hear his father has been inducted and it’s an honor for the entire family, especially for his late mother, whom he says, was the person who always seemed to help hold everything together.
Bud was a 1943 graduate of MHHS and was inducted posthumously into the MHHS Athletic Hall of Honor in 2010. Not only was he known as a great athlete, he and the late Neil Collie are credited with making blue and gold the school colors.
The story goes in 1941, after money had been raised to buy orange and black jackets for the football team, he and teammate Neil were sent to Little Rock to pick them up. For reasons that are not clear, they were short of funds. However, the vendor offered them blue and gold jackets that had been ordered by another school but never claimed. Bud and Neil got permission to buy the blue and gold, and the rest is history.
Upon graduation, he joined the U.S. Navy and was sent to gunnery school at Norman, Oklahoma. After graduation, he served in the Pacific Theater during World War II as a rear seat top gunman on a Douglas Dauntless Dive Bomber. He was involved in the Battle of the Mariana Islands and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. He also served aboard the Carrier Enterprise during this time and at one point, his plane was required to crash land on the deck of the Carrier.
After the war, Bud went to work at the Mountain Home Post Office and was postmaster from 1965 until retirement in 1978. During his first year as postmaster, he oversaw the dedication of a new post office and of the federal building that houses governmental offices to this day.
By the early 1960s, Baby Boomers were flooding into the school system and additional facilities were urgently needed. Bud stepped up to the challenge and was elected to the school board in 1962, serving until 1970. During that time, the elementary school was expanded and a new high school was built on its current site, with a forward-looking architecture that allowed for growth.
As a swelling population began to put stress on available medical services, the medical community also needed help. Bud joined the BRMC Board in 1975 and was its chairman from 1980 to 1985. During those years, he served as interim administrator of BRMC and led an aggressive drive to expand the number of beds and services for the larger regional population.
Bud also found time to work with civic groups and county government. He was president of the Farm Bureau Board, president of the Baxter County Fair Board, and a member of the Farm Service Agency County Committee, the Baxter County Equalization Board and the Mountain Home Cemetery Board.
He was a member of First United Methodist Church and was an avid sportsman who loved to fish and hunt, especially quail.
He is survived locally by two sons, Bob (Kathy) Bodenhamer and David Buster (Cathie) Bodenhamer, all of Mountain Home; six grandchildren, Paula Bodenhamer, Buddy Bodenhamer and Bailey Bodenhamer, all of Mountain Home, Pat Bodenhamer of Paragould, Katie Bodenhamer (Brett Budolfson) of Little Rock and Angie Curry of Nixa; and five great-grandchildren, Halle and Nathan Alford, Peyton Bodenhamer and Iris Anne and Rosemary Mae Budolfson; and two nephews, Jim and Joe Bodenhamer, both of Mountain Home.
In parts two and three of our four-part series, Mountain Home alumnus Brandi Sanders and former band director at Mountain Home Junior High John W. “Bill” Maxwell will be highlighted as Hall of Honor inductees.
Part four will highlight the Community Partnership Award to be given to local industry First Security Bank.
The inductees will be honored during the Night of Honors ceremony held at Big Creek Golf and Country Club at 5:30 Thursday evening.
Reservations may be made by contacting the MHEF office, KTLO or Mountain Home Public Schools Administrative Office.
The MHEF raises funds for student scholarships for post-secondary education and teacher grants for innovative teaching projects. The organization has given over $900,000 to Mountain Home students in scholarships awards and over $325,000 to Mountain Home teachers through teacher grants over the past decade.
To donate to the MHEF, send funds to 2465 Rodeo Drive, Mountain Home, AR, 72653, or contact Mollie Morgan at 425-1228.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI