- OBITUARY Bernard G. Kuhn 1921 - 2018 RAMONA Our dear dad passed away at home on December 19, 2018 after a short illness, with his daughters there to comfort him.Bernie Kuhn was born in Woodlawn, Nova Scotia, growing up during the Depression on his family's market garden/dairy farm. His first car was a Model T, and Dad was keen on road trips in any vehicle! He found farm life interesting but demanding and looked forward to Christmas and school holidays, when he could fish with his friends on Porters Lake.By the age of 17, Dad's parents had passed away, and the six children stayed with different relatives. Dad went to agricultural college with the idea of taking over the family farm, but this was not a good fit. He worked for the telephone company, then joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1943, becoming a navigator. His adventures included landing on the icefield of a pristine island off Greenland, with polar bears swatting at the plane overhead.As a master's degree student in electrical engineering at McGill, Dad and his brother David, also in the RCAF, met and married Montral sisters Marion (Elyse) and Marilyn in a double wedding. Bernie and Elyse enjoyed Air Force life and started their family. Bernie then worked with MIT-Lincoln Labs in Massachusetts developing radars, and the family became U.S. citizens.Enjoying new places, they moved to California, New York, and tiny Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, with its melting pot of Americans, Micronesians, and Asians, and an amazing number of parties.Bernie had great times sailing with buddies, winning a 40-mile race from Kwaj to Roi Namur. The parties continued when close Kwaj friends Bob and Joan Burke moved back to California.As Bernie neared retirement, they settled in Ramona with its spectacular views and sense of community.Dad became President of the Ramona Municipal Water District Board and dedicated the Lake Ramona dam. He enjoyed Rotary Club, initiated the Adopt-a-Student program at the Panamerican Institute (a junior high school in Tijuana), and supported Elyse in her successful efforts to build a new library.Dad was proud when his grandfather's 2,300 acres in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia were transferred to the province, creating the Peter McNab Kuhn Conservation Area. He and his siblings then honored their father with a university scholarship in his name. Dad also valued his daughters' accomplishments as parents, their artistic and culinary abilities, success at work, and cohesiveness and caring.Bernie loved and admired his wife, Elyse, beyond their 65 years of life together, half of it in their home on a Ramona hilltop amidst roadrunners, hummingbirds, hawks, and quail. He could build or fix anything and always had a project underway, including painting a giant roadrunner on the side of their house.Dad's heart remained in two places, taking great pleasure in his children, grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren in the U.S., and visiting Nova Scotia and his extended family each year. He traveled with Elyse to Thailand, Hong Kong, and Spain and explored the U.K., Mexico, the Great Lakes, and Alaska with his daughters.You could recognize Dad anywhere by his bolo tie and driving cap; his boyish sense of humor (including carting the dog around in a wheelbarrow); his curiosity about the world and our family's history, which he shared through writing; his embrace of responsibility, helping others, and willingness to always do a good job; and his larger-than-life presence.In recent years, Dad revealed more of his underlying feelings, and he inspired us with his appreciation and the courage in which he crossed over into the next world. May our dad rest in peace, joining those he loves.He was preceded in death by his wife, Elyse, parents Jessie and Max, sister Barbara, brother William, and grandson Jamie. He will be missed greatly by his brother and sisters David, Jessie, and Mary, daughters Diane, Nancy and Leslie, grandchildren Charles, Jenny, Sandra, Russell, Robert, Geoffrey, and Joseph, great-grandchildren John, Mary, Sean, Paige, Casey, Kyla, Austin, Evelyn, Noelle, and Ian, and great-great-grandchildren Hollis and Lynnette.Donations celebrating Bernie's life may be sent to The Nature Conservancy (nature.org), Panamerican Institute (paischool.org), or the P. Max Kuhn Scholarship, Dalhousie University (800-565-9969). The memorial service will be at noon, Saturday, March 2 at First Congregational Church, 404 8th Street, Ramona, CA. Please sign the guest book online at legacy.com/obituaries/ ramonasentinel
Published in Ramona Sentinel on Jan. 10, 2019.
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1921 - 2018 (97 years)
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