More detail on this person: Peter E. Gussenhoven, 67, Lewiston Peter Edmund Gussenhoven died Friday afternoon, July 31, 2009, at Maui Memorial Medical Center in Hawaii, after a severe stroke. He was 67. As a loving husband and father of six, a business owner and accomplished aviator, Pete spent most of his years in Lewiston. Pete was born on Jan. 15, 1942, in Havre, Mont., to Mary Esther Dickinson and Eugene William Gussenhoven. He was the fourth child in a family of eight. In 1943, his family relocated to Lewiston, where he attended elementary school at St. Stanislaus Catholic School. In 1960, he graduated high school from St. Gertrude's Academy in Cottonwood, where he played varsity basketball and sang in the glee club. He first attended college at the University of Portland in Oregon, followed by a semester of relief work as a lay volunteer for the Jesuit missions in Jamaica. In 1962, after his return from Jamaica, he enrolled at the University of Idaho in Moscow. There, he majored in engineering, was a Vandaleer and, most especially, met his future wife, Ann Ellen Hervey. They were married in April 1966. Pete enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1963 and trained as an air traffic controller before being accepted to officer candidate school. In 1966 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and shortly after his marriage to Ann, reported for training as an Army aviator. After graduating from pilot training in 1967 at Ft. Rucker, Ala., and earning his wings, he deployed to Vietnam with the 1st Air Cavalry. Among other awards, he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism while participating in aerial flight. After returning from overseas, Pete received orders to Ft. Carson, Colo., where he served for two years. Pete left the active service in January 1970 and moved his family to Westchester, Calif., where he joined the California National Guard. In California, he trained as an aircraft airframe and power plant technician at the Northrop Institute of Technology. He later transferred to the Idaho National Guard after returning to Lewiston in 1971 to enter a partnership in the family business, Gussenhoven Plumbing and Heating. He earned his license as a professional plumber and continued to serve his community simultaneously as a businessman, a senior officer in the Idaho National Guard, and a communicant of the St. Stanislaus Catholic Church. In 1979, he completed the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kan. Having risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel, this true citizen-soldier retired from the military service in 1989 with 23 years of faithful service. In 1990, he retired from the family plumbing business and joined his wife as a teacher, mentor and assistant in her child-care business. Not only was Pete a distinguished Army helicopter pilot, but he was also a licensed fixed-wing aircraft pilot. His other hobbies included woodworking, gardening, baking, grease-monkeying and tinkering. A fervent and skilled "do-it-yourselfer," Pete committed countless hours to the expansion of the family home where he and Ann raised their six children. He loved the outdoors and enjoyed camping and fishing with his children. Some of his fondest memories included taking his boys flying in his Cessna 172, and landing on a small grass airstrip in the Idaho backcountry where they could try their luck at fly-fishing for trout in the mountain streams. Survivors include his wife, Ann Ellen of Lewiston six children, Eugene and wife Kaye of Boise, Steve and wife Christine of Grenoble, France, Richard and wife Elisabeth of Lille, France, Michael and wife Rachele of Oak Harbor, Wash., Cheryl and husband Mark Learned of Denver, and Carolyn of Denver and 10 grandchildren: Sarah, MacKenzie, Emile, Adele, Elliot, Anna, Katherine, Weston and Skye Gussenhoven, and Jason Learned. Pete and his wife had just completed three weeks of travel in Europe to visit their children and grandchildren residing in France, and relatives residing in Norway. After a brief stop in Lewiston, they traveled to Lahaina, Hawaii, to continue their summer vacation with relatives when Pete suffered a stroke. A memorial service will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Lewiston. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to: The Monastery of St. Gertrude, In Memory of Peter Gussenhoven, 465 Keuterville Road, Cottonwood, ID 83522-5183 or All Saints Catholic School, In Memory of Peter Gussenhoven, 641 Fifth Ave., Lewiston, ID 83501
This information was last updated 12/09/2017
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Date posted on this site: 03/10/2024
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