Jefferson Sears Grunden, 78

Jefferson Sears Grunden, 78, of Hayden Lake, Idaho, died Nov. 7, 2016, while a patient at Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. He was born Aug. 10, 1938, in Jersey City, N.J., to Wayne Isaac Grunden and Ruth Sears Grunden.

Jeff attended elementary school in Jersey City, and the remainder of his schooling in Mountain Lakes, N.J., where he lettered in five sports and received the nickname of “Moose” because he was so strong in football. His father refused to allow him to accept a football scholarship to William and Mary, so he attended Penn State University, graduating in 1960 in civil engineering with an emphasis in highway engineering. He and a classmate were both hired by the U.S. Forest Service in Grangeville, Idaho, Jeff’s dream job of being able to live and work in the rural outdoors, in contrast to New Jersey’s multi-lane highways in suffocating heat.

After reprimanding his classmate for “robbing the cradle, dating a high school senior,” Jeff ended up marrying Kathryn Joey Wright in 1964, one year before her graduating from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., in 1965, when they left for Peace Corps training for “community development” in Peru, South America. They were hand-picked to replace the former couple in Huaylas, Ancash, Peru, where they needed a civil engineer to repair a leaking water reservoir and a woman who could teach sewing lessons on two treadle sewing machines donated by the U.S. government.

In Peru in addition to the two jobs that landed them in Huaylas, they started 4-H clubs in which boys learned to vaccinate chickens so they repopulated the district after New Castles’ Disease had wiped out all chickens, had a 10-day educational camp in the larger valley, drawing students from numerous small towns, many for the first time they had left their villages.

We taught such skills as dying papers using their local dyes normally reserved for wool before weaving into ponchos and skirts (in order to make 4-H club journals and photo albums), doing ceramics that could be sold, using their local clay, making rabbit hutches from locally harvested branches, making ovens from recycled lard cans, embroidery using locally dyed wool and giving public demonstrations. The top students we took to Lima to the country-wide fair. When we visited 10 years later with our two sons, 6 and 8, one of the students we had introduced to Lima was currently enrolled in the university there.

Jeff and Joey also supervised the construction of two schools through the School Partnership Program, started a community newspaper using a mimeograph machine donated by a Pennsylvania newspaper company, and spearheaded teacher education projects encouraged by the Peruvian government. Joey also taught high school English, a required course in order to start a night high school in our town, A school library was also begun with funds from a U.S. school, with a Peruvian school teacher being sent to Lima to purchase books. Upon our return 10 years later, it was gratifying to see the library still functioning, the mimeograph machine still being utilized to announce town hall meetings, and the weekly postal delivery to very distant communities in the district, preventing mail with cash being burned due to not being picked up in the main post office.

Jeff and Joey moved to the Coeur d’Alene area in 1979. Jeff worked for Winzler and Kelly Consulting Engineers, Meckel Engineering, and as the first engineer for the city of Hayden. From 1988-1991, Jeff worked in Guam and Saipan, where he was in charge of putting in a new water system and constructing a new airport hardstand, as well as various smaller projects.

In Kootenai and Shoshone counties, Jeff inspected bridges for several years, when the state inspector noted he was the first person who scored a perfect 100 percent on the state exam.

Jeff was an avid gardener on our Dalton acre, many times earning blue ribbons in flower arranging and fruits and vegetable produce at the North Idaho Fair. He arranged a beautiful bouquet for his mother every Sunday, and eventually made a second bouquet for the Bestland residents to enjoy in the dining room because they gathered in the lobby every Sunday night to admire the bouquet Ruth took to her room.

Jeff was a member of the Hayden Lake Friends Church for many years, prior to moving to the Hayden Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church. He was an active member of the Coeur d’Alene Gyro Club, a men’s friendship fraternity in Canada and the United States. Jeff and Joey were frequent travelers to Canada and other cities in the U.S. for Gyro conventions. He was also a lifelong member of the Coeur d’Alene and Hayden Lake Eagles.

Jeff is survived by his wife of 52 years, Joey, at their Hayden home; son John (Tara) and twins Josh and Abby Jo of Pittstown, N.J.; son Rick and grandson Andrew of Los Angeles, Calif. (except Rick moved to Hayden in early October to care for his disabled father and mother facing six months of chemotherapy for colon cancer); brother Bruce and wife Carol Grunden in Huffman, Texas; niece Kelly (James) Dark and their daughter Ashley from Dallas, Texas; sister-in-law Jonna (Richard) Bowman in Sumner, Wash.; along with nephews Troy (Angela) Harris and daughters Sophia and Savannah from Mesa, Ariz., John (Cara) Harris, daughter Cristol, sons Skylar, Colby and D.J. of Lake Tapps, Wash., and Jeff (Cindy) Harris, daughter Janae, son James (Bobbi Jo) Harris, son Jace and daughter River Joy from Spanaway, Wash.; niece Dr. Elizabeth Sears of Ann Arbor, Mich.; nephew David (Kim) Sears of Ashburn, Va.; and cousin George (Wellie) Landis of Cromwell, Conn.

We are having a memorial service at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016, with lunch to follow. The service will be at the Hayden Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church, 12940 N. Government Way, Hayden (at the intersection with Lancaster Road).

You are invited to sign the online guest book for Jeff Grunden at www.yatesfuneralhomes.com by going to obituaries and finding Jeff Grunden.