Quentin Walter "Bud" Biesemeier

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Quentin Walter “Bud” Biesemeier, aged 93 years, passed on peacefully Friday, February 2, 2024, at the Haxtun Hospital Extended Care Unit.

Bud was born November 11, 1930, to Walter and Emma (Finkner) Biesemeier at the then-family home in Paoli, Colorado.  Bud and his sisters, Edith (b. 1924) and JoAnn (b. 1933), and their parents moved several times during his early years, until Walt purchased the farm site three miles south and one west of Paoli in 1942.  This would become Bud’s permanent home for the next 60 years.

Bud attended school at Broadway School, which was across the road from his home, then later he and sister JoAnn went to Paoli School District (he related that his last grade schoolteacher was from Holyoke, so upon elementary graduation he received a Holyoke schools’ certificate, despite never attending classes there!).  His high school years were spent at Haxtun High School, where he graduated in 1948.  He then continued his life-long commitment to the family farm southwest of Paoli. 

On August 6, 1950, Bud married Bonnie Lue Maine. To their union were added daughters Nancy (1952) and Connie (1956), and son Brian (1959).  With his father’s retirement in 1956, Bud assumed full responsibility for the growth and success of the family farming and livestock operation, plus a later joint enterprise with several neighbors to develop the HBF Feedlot east of Haxtun in 1969.  His passion and drive, aided by the support and assistance of his family and those he hired throughout the years, along with rapid advancements in agricultural technology and economics from the 1960’s to the present, made expansion and productivity of these possible.

Along with his business acumen, Bud possessed a strong desire to learn from and contribute to entities in his community and beyond.  To that end, he served on numerous management, local government, and nonprofit boards throughout his life.  These included the Haxtun Coop Oil Board in the late 1960s, then the Sterling Federal Land Bank, and Phillips County Commissioners. His local Land Bank service from 1972 to 1987 ultimately led to his selection to serve as one of the directors on the Federal Land Bank Board in Wichita, Kansas, from 1990 to 2001.  Following his Farm Credit service, Bud successfully ran for Phillips County Commissioner for District 3, in which capacity he served from 2001 to 2013. Also, Bud was a 50-year member of the Haxtun Lions Club, which included his receipt of the District Governor’s Club President Award for his leadership in 1970-71.  He also attained the degree of Master Mason as a member of the Masonic Haxtun and Sterling Lodges.  Bud was also a board member for the First National Bank of Holyoke from 1987 to 1991, and Jack’s Bean Company from 2002 to 2009.  As lifelong members of the Methodist Church, first in Paoli, then the Haxtun United Methodist Church when Paoli’s congregation merged with it, Bud and his family have served the church and its outreach ministries in many ways over the years.

Although farming and livestock has a tendency to limit the availability of “free time”, Bud and Bonnie were able to enjoy rewarding get-aways:  an extended family road trip to New York and parts in between, a road trip to Lake Powell in its early days, a genealogical and ag excursion to Germany, a bullet-train trip across Japan, cruising tours and trips with local friends and his siblings and their spouses to the Caribbean, Mexico and Hawaii, among many other memory-creating outings. 

In 2001 with their move into Haxtun, Bud and Bonnie decided to slow down from the day-to-day involvement in the farm and livestock operations.  In their retirement, they were honored to be selected as Co-Grand Marshals of the 2013 Phillips County Fair and Parade, and, after Bonnie’s passing in 2016, Bud was honorary Grand Marshal for the 97th Annual Haxtun Corn Festival in 2018 (he shared the parade Grand Marshal’s float with his eight grandchildren and their families!).

Bud was preceded in death by his parents Walter and Emma, wife Bonnie, brother-in-law Eugene & sister-in-law Vona (Covert) Maine, sister Edith and brother-in-law Chester Harms, niece Joyce Harms, sister JoAnn Deremo, sister-in-law Elsie Mae (Maine) Fisbeck and brother-in-law Leo Fisbeck.

He is survived by daughter Nancy and husband Rob Dee of Haxtun (grandson Michael and wife Grace (Nichols), great-grandchildren Harrison, Sullivan, Lexington, Lincoln of Elizabeth, CO; grandson Kevan and wife Cassidy (Warner) of Gypsum, CO; grandson Ryan and wife Isabelle (Miller), great-granddaughter Olivia of Portland, OR); by daughter Connie and husband Don Reutter of Wheatland WY, (grandson Colin and wife Catherine (Reynolds), great-granddaughter Eloise of Arvada, CO;  granddaughter Michelle and husband Derek Coplen, great-grandson Lucas of Wheatland, WY); and by son Brian and wife Lori (Zimmerman) of Haxtun, (grandson Brandon and wife Julia (Anderson), great-grandsons Greyson and Treyton of Sedgwick; grandson Regan and wife Kendra (Seger), great-grandchildren Peyton, Tripp and Reese of Sedgwick; and grandson Garrick and wife Natasha (Helfer), great-grandsons Keelan and Kyson of Haxtun); and by brother-in-law Larry Deremo of Dove Creek, CO, and sister-in-law Onna Lee (Maine) and husband Woody Reddy of Arizona City, AZ.

A Celebration of Life Service will be held at the Haxtun Methodist Church on Saturday, February 10, at 11 AM with Pastor Jeri Soens Officiating.

Memorials may be made to the “Bud Biesemeier Memorial Fund” in care of the Haxtun Methodist Church, PO Box 145, Haxtun, CO  80731.  

Baucke Funeral Home, Holyoke, has been entrusted with the arrangements.  Viewing is possible from 5 to 7 PM, Friday, February 9th, at the funeral home located at 1220 SW Interocean Dr in Holyoke.

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