Nicholas Buida

NICHOLAS BUIDA March 5, 1914 September 23, 2009 Nicholas Buida died September 23, 2009, from heart failure. Services will be 1:00 p.m., Saturday, September 26, at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Chapel with Pastor Jim Menke officiating. Burial will follow at Waco Memorial Park. Nick was born March 5, 1914, in St. Michael, Pennsylvania, the fourth child of John and Anna Haverlock Buida. His mother moved her three children, Tom, Julia, and Nick, to Osceola Mills after her husband was killed in a mining accident when Nick was just thirteen months old. In Osceola, they were surrounded by her loving family, notably Anna's brothers, Jake, Mick, and John, and her sisters, Ju, Dora, Edith, and especially Helen, who was the same age as Nick and his siblings. Anna's young family was in dire financial straits until they were awarded the contract to clean the town school. In later years, Nick told how sad it made him to look out the window and see his schoolmates playing while he was sweeping a school room. In 1932, Nick graduated from Osceola Mills High School as class president. He played baseball, and football and sang in the school musical production. Directly after high school, Nick was hired by General Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio. He began work on the fabric dryer and, on his own, learned all the jobs in the Processing Department. In 1935, he was promoted to floor foreman, then shift foreman. On the side he played tennis, participated in the company's golf and bowling leagues, and attended night classes at University of Akron. Three years later he married Eileen Rose Button, a high school teacher. In 1950, General Tire moved Nick, Eileen and their children, Jeanell and William Thomas Bill, to Waco, where Nick managed the Processing Department. At the department's production peak, he supervised 205 workers and twelve foremen. A lifelong athlete, Nick was co-founder of the Waco plant's golf and bowling leagues. During his active years, he was a three-gallon blood donor, a member of Executive Club and Lake Waco Country Club, and president of his investment club. The family attended Trinity Lutheran Church. On the job, he was hard-working and innovative. At home, he was loving and generous. His friends and family will miss his kindness, joyful spirit, and caring heart. In 1976, Nick retired from work, but not from golf, hitting his first hole-in-one in 1984. He also specialized in being a proud grandfather to Kit, Lee, and Lexa. During this period, he and Eileen made yearly trips to see relatives in Ohio and Pennsylvania. For twelve years after Eileen's death, Bill and his wife, Patsy, enabled him to continue annual visits to his sister, Julia, in Osceola. In 1998, Nick moved to Stilwell Retirement Residence, where he made many new friends. After surgery in 2004, Nick recovered in Trinity Care Center in Round Rock. The next year, he lived briefly at The Renaissance in Austin, then transferred to Sagebrook Care Center in Cedar Park. Nick was preceded in death by his wife, Eileen; his brother, Tom; his sister, Julia; and by an older brother, John, who died in infancy. He is survived by Jeanell Bolton and husband, Christopher L.; Bill and wife, Patsy; grandchildren Christopher Nicholas Paul Kit Bolton and wife, Jennifer; William Nelson Lee Bolton; and Alexandra Dorothy Eileen Bolton. The family thanks the administration and staff of Sagebrook for their loving care of Nick over the past four years and for their kindness to the family during Nick's final days. The family invites you to leave a message or memory in our 'Memorial Guestbook' at www.wilkirsonhatchbailey.com.