Almy was born in Kemmerer. He became known by his nickname Bud almost from the time he was born. He was named after his mother’s favorite uncle and his Grandfather Hansen. His sister called him buddy because she couldn’t say brother, and that name stayed until it got shortened to Bud.
During the first few years of Bud’s life, his family lived near Jackson and then moved to Frontier, where he went to grade school. Growing up in Frontier was an adventure in itself. Frontier is a small town of about 400 located a mile north of Kemmerer. At that time it had a saloon, grade school, a boarding house, and a general store with a post office and the Kemmerer Coal Co. offices. The store was owned by the Kemmerer Coal Co. which also owned the town and employed most of the inhabitants.
Bud went to junior high and high school in Kemmerer. He started playing the trombone in the high school band. This began his love of music. He learned to enjoy classical music.
Bud graduated high school in 1959. He then went to work for a seismograph company until January 1960 when he joined the Air Force, where he was trained as an electronics technician. After tech school he was sent to Korea. He liked Asia immediately and felt at home there. He said “Wherever I went, from Korea to Thailand, I liked it.” He served in Korea, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam.
After being discharged in 1967, Bud went back to Japan, where he had met Haruko Sasaki when he was previously stationed there. Their romance blossomed and they were married December 20, 1967, at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
Bud then worked at a variety of jobs until they moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, and decided to take night classes at the University of Hawaii. It took six years but in 1978 Bud finally got his bachelor’s degree in business management.
A friend finally convinced him that he should go to work at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. There he worked as a radiation control monitor, became a machinist, stayed in the nuclear program, and eventually became an instructor. In 1990 he transferred to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton and bought his home in Port Orchard.
Bud retired in 2005 and began to make his new life. He enjoyed landscaping his yard. He had always wanted to build log cabins and started building log cabin models. They had to be built to scale. They were perfect. He then took up drawing which was what he had always done pretty well. He loved it! It was very satisfying to him. He joined the South Kitsap Artists Association.
Bud was devoted to his wife Haruko. She has always been devoted to him. They enjoyed their life together. He said she took all their moves with a “whither thou goest” attitude. They enjoyed their life together.
Bud is survived by Dayle Ann Findlay (Lynn) of Richfield, Utah, and Donald Wayne Barnes of Valley City, North Dakota. He is preceded in death by parents Roy Wayne and Lola Florean Hansen Barnes, brothers LeRoy Willard, Calvin Eddy and Ray Dudley.
Funeral services for Bud were held on Oct. 27 in Port Orchard, Washington.
