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Harold Ainsworth Bond
Newport
Harold Ainsworth Bond
Harold Ainsworth Bond was born April 5th, 1937, in Spokane WA. The oldest of three children born to Harold (Bob) & Adrienne Bond. He spent his younger years growing up at the Bond family ranch at the end of Bond Road in Cusick, WA. During WWII his father, a cement finisher, took the family on the road from job to job around the PNW. He told of attending 8 different schools in one year, starting and finishing the year in Cusick. Living on the ranch was the perfect place for a young boy that wanted nothing more than to be a cowboy. In between fishing, hunting and blowing stuff up (yes with dynamite), he rode everything he could get on; horses, mules, cows, bulls, literally anything. He raised chickens and guineas to make extra money and, come to find out, sold moonshine to his friends at school, made by a guy down the road. Yup, come to find out, he wasn’t the angel he led my sister and I to believe he was when we were kids!
Dad moved with the family into town when he was in Junior High where he worked as a paper boy in Cusick and later at the Diamond Match Mill during High School. After graduating Cusick High in 1955 and having enlisted in the Air National Guard a year earlier, he moved to Spokane and was stationed at Geiger Field and later Fairchild AFB attached to the 141st Air Refueling Wing. In 1962 he married Louise Leeper (Campbell) and they bought a small ranch in the Spokane Valley where he raised cows and chickens and had just about the biggest garden in the whole valley. He was an avid hunter, fisherman, competitive trap shooter, he worked the chutes at the Newport and Cusick rodeos and was still jumping on every horse or rodeo bull he could find. He was also fascinated by veterinary medicine and spent a lot of time working with his good friend who was a veterinarian.
Dad denied this when we joked with him later on, but we are pretty sure at some point dad looked at mom and said, “aren’t we supposed to be doing something?” oh yeah, KIDS! In 1971 his son Buckly was born who he named after his best friend (in crime and shenanigans) from Cusick, Jerry “Buck” Howe. In 1975 his daughter Christina was born and according to him there was never a quiet day after that.
In 1977 mom and dad joined the Seventh Day Adventist church and were baptized that same year. He had a strong belief in the Lord and the church was a large part of his life. He was the greeter at the Newport Adventist church for many years which fit his quick-witted, joking personality.
In 1978 he sold the small ranch in the Spokane Valley and bought a larger ranch in Spring Valley, South of Newport, where he built the cattle ranch he always wanted and got out of the city. Driving 120 miles a day round trip to work at Fairchild AFB, up at 3am to feed cows and home by 7pm to work with the cows once more before falling into bed late into the night. Every once in a while, we would get to see him in the house. His pre-dawn to midnight work ethic was passed down to his children as an example of dedication, hard work and a legacy of love.
Harold was elected and served as Port of Pend Oreille Commissioner for many years, a position and responsibility he took great pride in holding and representing the interests of Pend Oreille County constituents. Common sense and a strong sense of right and wrong made him the perfect man for the job, helping build the POVN into what it is today. With a combined 42 years of military service, he retired and partnered with his close friend Tom Eagle and became a full-time cattle rancher. Finally doing what he loved most. After many years he sold the ranch to Buckly and moved to Brooksville Florida saying, “I have had enough of the snow and cold”. In Florida he bought a house on a “mountain” as he called it, since it was 200 feet above sea level. He promptly surrounded it with cows… shocking! In Florida we saw a different dad, he had truly retired and wasn’t working dawn to dusk. He worked at General Auto delivering parts all over town. The perfect job for his daily on-the-road amateur joke tour. He loved fishing in the Gulf and waged an all-out war against armadillos. His companion, a cat named Morris, also hated armadillos. Armed with a shotgun and his armadillo pointing cat the war raged on. He made a lot of good friends and memories in Florida but at the age of 80 moved back to the ranch in Spring Valley. Enjoying his huckleberry picking obsession, visiting with life-long friends, watching rodeos on the cowboy channel, weekly turkey days at Audrey’s Café and watching those “damn turkeys” in the yard! In 2023 he moved in with his son Buckly and daughter-in-law Sue in the Tri Cities and lived there until his passing Nov 14th 2024.
They say when a person dies it’s like a library burning down. Not only was dad’s library huge, it covered such a vast range of history. Seeing his grandparents head to town in a horse and buggy, pulling out the car battery to hook up to the family radio so they could listen to the Grand Ole Opry, watching electricity come to the Bond Ranch for the first time, watching the arrival of the jet age, the birth of the space age, the invention of the Internet and talking on a phone he pulled out of his pocket (although didn’t always turn on), to watching Elon catch a rocket on TV, which he thought was just about the best thing he had seen in a long time. What an incredible journey! He will be greatly missed and this world will be a quieter place without his laugh, his stories, his impersonations and the jokes he told that drew you into an alternate reality.
At the time of passing, he was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Bruce Bond, his sister Jeanette Graham. He is survived by his son Buckly Bond (Sue) of West Richland, WA and his daughter Christina Bond of Lincoln, ND as well as three grandsons, Alex Bond, Micah and Campbell McGill and a cat named Morris
Funeral service will be held at the Sherman-Campbell Funeral in Newport, Wa. on April 7th at 10am with reception to follow at the Hospitality House 216 S Washington Avenue, Newport, WA.
Dad moved with the family into town when he was in Junior High where he worked as a paper boy in Cusick and later at the Diamond Match Mill during High School. After graduating Cusick High in 1955 and having enlisted in the Air National Guard a year earlier, he moved to Spokane and was stationed at Geiger Field and later Fairchild AFB attached to the 141st Air Refueling Wing. In 1962 he married Louise Leeper (Campbell) and they bought a small ranch in the Spokane Valley where he raised cows and chickens and had just about the biggest garden in the whole valley. He was an avid hunter, fisherman, competitive trap shooter, he worked the chutes at the Newport and Cusick rodeos and was still jumping on every horse or rodeo bull he could find. He was also fascinated by veterinary medicine and spent a lot of time working with his good friend who was a veterinarian.
Dad denied this when we joked with him later on, but we are pretty sure at some point dad looked at mom and said, “aren’t we supposed to be doing something?” oh yeah, KIDS! In 1971 his son Buckly was born who he named after his best friend (in crime and shenanigans) from Cusick, Jerry “Buck” Howe. In 1975 his daughter Christina was born and according to him there was never a quiet day after that.
In 1977 mom and dad joined the Seventh Day Adventist church and were baptized that same year. He had a strong belief in the Lord and the church was a large part of his life. He was the greeter at the Newport Adventist church for many years which fit his quick-witted, joking personality.
In 1978 he sold the small ranch in the Spokane Valley and bought a larger ranch in Spring Valley, South of Newport, where he built the cattle ranch he always wanted and got out of the city. Driving 120 miles a day round trip to work at Fairchild AFB, up at 3am to feed cows and home by 7pm to work with the cows once more before falling into bed late into the night. Every once in a while, we would get to see him in the house. His pre-dawn to midnight work ethic was passed down to his children as an example of dedication, hard work and a legacy of love.
Harold was elected and served as Port of Pend Oreille Commissioner for many years, a position and responsibility he took great pride in holding and representing the interests of Pend Oreille County constituents. Common sense and a strong sense of right and wrong made him the perfect man for the job, helping build the POVN into what it is today. With a combined 42 years of military service, he retired and partnered with his close friend Tom Eagle and became a full-time cattle rancher. Finally doing what he loved most. After many years he sold the ranch to Buckly and moved to Brooksville Florida saying, “I have had enough of the snow and cold”. In Florida he bought a house on a “mountain” as he called it, since it was 200 feet above sea level. He promptly surrounded it with cows… shocking! In Florida we saw a different dad, he had truly retired and wasn’t working dawn to dusk. He worked at General Auto delivering parts all over town. The perfect job for his daily on-the-road amateur joke tour. He loved fishing in the Gulf and waged an all-out war against armadillos. His companion, a cat named Morris, also hated armadillos. Armed with a shotgun and his armadillo pointing cat the war raged on. He made a lot of good friends and memories in Florida but at the age of 80 moved back to the ranch in Spring Valley. Enjoying his huckleberry picking obsession, visiting with life-long friends, watching rodeos on the cowboy channel, weekly turkey days at Audrey’s Café and watching those “damn turkeys” in the yard! In 2023 he moved in with his son Buckly and daughter-in-law Sue in the Tri Cities and lived there until his passing Nov 14th 2024.
They say when a person dies it’s like a library burning down. Not only was dad’s library huge, it covered such a vast range of history. Seeing his grandparents head to town in a horse and buggy, pulling out the car battery to hook up to the family radio so they could listen to the Grand Ole Opry, watching electricity come to the Bond Ranch for the first time, watching the arrival of the jet age, the birth of the space age, the invention of the Internet and talking on a phone he pulled out of his pocket (although didn’t always turn on), to watching Elon catch a rocket on TV, which he thought was just about the best thing he had seen in a long time. What an incredible journey! He will be greatly missed and this world will be a quieter place without his laugh, his stories, his impersonations and the jokes he told that drew you into an alternate reality.
At the time of passing, he was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Bruce Bond, his sister Jeanette Graham. He is survived by his son Buckly Bond (Sue) of West Richland, WA and his daughter Christina Bond of Lincoln, ND as well as three grandsons, Alex Bond, Micah and Campbell McGill and a cat named Morris
Funeral service will be held at the Sherman-Campbell Funeral in Newport, Wa. on April 7th at 10am with reception to follow at the Hospitality House 216 S Washington Avenue, Newport, WA.