Gathering remembers late county commissioner liaison
Kimberly K. Bush died on Jan. 7, 2013, of ovarian cancer, but her presence was so strong that dozens of people gathered on Dec. 30 at Mountain Crest Park to observe what would have been her 50th birthday.
A collection was taken to fund a planned water feature memorial at the park, 4701 N. Durango Drive, to honor her.
As Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown’s liaison, Bush attended many town board meetings and interacted with constituents.
“She was the guardian of the parks out there, Mountain Crest and Lone Mountain,” Brown said. “She was instrumental in getting the last phase of Lone Mountain done. … And how she handled constituents, from the senior citizen who needed help with social services to neighborhood disputes to runaway dogs, to just about everything you could imagine, Kim was always there.
“If there’s one thing that stands out about Kim, she had a persona. She made people feel comfortable, and she made people feel as though they had value, that they weren’t just another number in District C. Not only did she make people feel that way, it was sincere. There was nothing phony about it.”
Bush was born in Solvang, Calif., but grew up in Provo, Utah. An avid fitness enthusiast, she and her husband, Spencer, enjoyed vacationing at beaches around the world. Before she was diagnosed with stage four cancer, Bush and her husband had planned to celebrate her 50th birthday in Costa Rica.
Barbara Strahl trained Bush as a county employee and thought of her as a sister.
“She was always interested in learning as much as she could, doing things better,” Strahl said. “… She had the ability to make everyone feel like they were her best friend. And her ability to remember, she could remember dates and names, oh my God.”
Bush earned her bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Phoenix in 2000. She retired from Clark County in February 2012. She is survived by her husband, Spencer Bush; her mother, Carolyn Hess; her father, Wayne Zupan; her brother, Brett Zupan; and her dog, Bo.
“You can’t label Kimmie. She was kind of a spitfire … She started running at 8 months and never stopped,” said her mother, Carolyn Hess. “You had to eat your Cheerios and just try to keep up.”
People can drop off donations in sealed envelopes during business hours Monday through Friday at the park’s community center. Checks should be made out to the “Kim Bush Memorial Fund” with “Spencer Bush” written on the envelope. The water feature’s estimated cost is just more than $69,000.
Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.
