A few weeks ago, an old friend died–Paul Bush.

His passing was not immediately known here. He had quietly lived for many years in Florida in his retirement. He was no longer “making waves” in this community…though, at one time, he had made many.

It doesn’t take long for memories to fade. As Alfred Lord Tennyson once poignantly wrote: “The old order changeth, yielding place to new.”

But, one advantage in being old, like me, is that I still have vivid memories. I can tell you of being a kid five years old and celebrating the end of World War II in downtown Jamestown where the car horns were blaring, people were partying in the street and kids were yelling “the war is over, the war is over!”

I can reminisce about growing up on a dairy farm, milking cows and working with my Dad on the farm.

And, I can still remember some of the “movers and shakers” in Jamestown. One of those was Paul Bush.

When I first met Paul, he was an up-and-coming businessman from Little Valley who had inherited a family business and was bringing new life into it. You could probably call him an “interloper” as he wasn’t born and raised in Chautauqua County. He was a “Catt. County guy.”

Yet, to Chautauqua County he came, along with the vision of creating a company to manufacture “ready to assemble” furniture. The county offered him a site for a new factory in the Mason Industrial Park. He endorsed the idea and came.

On the day that the financing was finalized to make the new factory possible, Paul was playing golf with a friend of mine at Moonbrook. They were on # 7 green, and a golf cart came speeding up with a couple of bankers yelling and screaming to Paul… “we got the financing, we got the financing!”

Paul thanked them for the news, and, after they left, he turned to his playing partner and said: “I don’t know if I should be smiling or crying. Now, we can build a business, but we also have the bankers to pay.”

Well, he did build that business, and it was very successful. There are now new owners of the business, but Bush Industries continues as a significant employer in the area. Think of all the people employed and the economic good that has been done for our county over the past 40 years.

Paul was always generous, and many still remember the 4th of July parties at his home in Lakewood. Sometimes, when called upon, he would contribute financially to ensure that there would be the annual fireworks display in the village.

Perhaps his greatest contribution to the community was the day that he gifted the Jamestown Tennis Center to the YMCA. Without that gift, there would not be the Lakewood YMCA that we now enjoy.

Goodbye, old friend. You did a lot of good here in this community. You will be greatly missed.

Paul S. Bush: May 5, 1936 – January 22, 2025.