OBITUARY Clarence Vanbuskirk April 28, 1935 – September 14, 2018 Clarence VanBuskirk, Jr. of South Sandwich, MA died on September 14, 2018 from complications due to Parkinson’s Disease. Clarence was the husband of Leah (Wenzel) VanBuskirk. They had just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on Sept.
6, 2018. He was born at home on Great Hill Road in South Sandwich to Clarence VanBuskirk, Sr. and Octavia Louise Hoxie, graduating from Sandwich High School in 1953 in a class of only 16 students. He joined the Army that same year, serving in the Army Signal Corp.
at SHAPE Headquarters near Paris, France from 1954 to 1956. He later worked at Otis Air Force Base as a boiler plant operator until retiring in 1987. A Mayflower descendant, his ancestors were also among the first families to settle the town of Sandwich in 1637.
Survivors include his wife Leah and five children, Gary VanBuskirk and his wife Victoria of Farmington, Maine; Caryn and her husband Jim Bowles of South Sandwich; Dawna and her husband Thomas Phaneuf of Edgartown, MA; Robin VanBuskirk of Brooklin, Maine and Brian VanBuskirk of South Sandwich. Seven grandchildren, Christopher and Rhiannon Bowles both of Sandwich; Brendan Phaneuf of Martha’s Vineyard; Chelsea (Phaneuf) Rossier and Mattia (Phaneuf) Newman both of Austin, Texas and Quinn and Rowan Waring both of Maine. Two great granddaughters Torren and Vita Waring and great grandson River M. Bowles.
His in-laws Mary Beth O’Neill, and Maury and June Kogut. Also two nephews Erik and Mark VanBuskirk, three nieces and three grandnieces in addition to many cousins. He was preceded in death by his siblings Robert, James and Joan VanBuskirk.
He will be missed for his storytelling and recounting of Sandwich lore. From the depression era and rural South Sandwich — a part of town where there were only about fifteen families and no electricity until 1947, he would relate stories of having to use kerosene lamps, coal stoves, iceboxes, outhouses and a battery operated radio. His family would get their drinking water from a cistern in the kitchen and all other water needed was drawn by hand into five gallon milk cans, and carried up the hill from the pond behind their home.
Another memorable story was printed in Cape Cod Times recalling the time he was an eyewitness to a plane crash where an Air Force pilot made the sacrificial choice to intentionally down his jet ultimately in the woods of S. Sandwich to avoid greater loss of life. A graveside service will be held on September 20th at 11:00 a.m. at South Sandwich Cemetery on Boardley Road.
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