Martha Rigby Pond Kuhn
Martha Rigby Pond Kuhn
Martha
Rigby Pond Kuhn, age 92, died on September 2nd at her home in Boise surrounded
by her family.
She
was born May 24, 1927 in Idaho Falls to Parley and Margaret Moseley Rigby.
She
attended Riverside Grade School, O.E. Bell Junior High, and graduated from
Idaho Falls High in 1945.
She
attended the University of Idaho, graduating in 1949.
She is a member of Gamma Phi Beta Sorority
and served as Chapter President her Senior year.
Following graduation, she taught at Nampa
Junior High for one year.
She returned
to Idaho Falls and worked in a local bank as a secretary and teller.
On
November 3, 1951 she married Robert Pond in Idaho Falls.
They spent three years in Logan, Utah, where
they owned and operated the Logan Credit Bureau.
This was long before computers.
They returned to Idaho Falls where he was in
business and she was a homemaker.
In the
early 1960’s Martha served on the executive committee of a non-profit
corporation that managed Harbor House (a temporary home for neglected and
abandoned children).
She and Bob were
divorced in 1971.
In
the late 1960’s she began taking courses at Idaho State in library science. The
Idaho State Library Association awarded her a scholarship that allowed her to
attend the University of Oklahoma in 1970 for additional library
certification.
She then served as school
librarian at both O.E. Bell Jr. High and Idaho Falls High School.
On
September 25, 1976, she was married to Calvin L. Kuhn.
They made their home in Pocatello, then
Boise.
He died in Boise on June 27,
1979.
Beginning in 1983, she made Boise
her permanent home.
Writing
has always been one of Martha’s loves. During high school and college she wrote
for the school newspaper and was a member of both yearbook staffs. Before her father
died, she wrote a history of her Grandfather, William F. Rigby, (for whom the
town of Rigby, Idaho was named) and his family which was published and sold to
members of his extended family. In later years, she wrote the story of her
travels to University of Idaho on the “Student Special” train from Pocatello to
Moscow in the fall of 1945. This story was published in 2008 in the Annual
Journal of Latah County Historical Society.
When
Idaho Senator Frank Church passed away, he left his papers to the BSU library
and in 1994, the Archivist was looking for volunteers to process all the
documents. During the next 3 years, Martha volunteered to do the archiving and
found many letters from her father to Senator Church from the 1960’s that she
herself had typed!
She
was preceded in death by her brother William F. Rigby.
Survivors include her children:
Peggy Jo Jones of Boise, Virginia (Paul)
Farkas of Eugene, Oregon, and Fred (Cherie) Pond of Lake Oswego, Oregon.
Also, five grandchildren:
Ben (Alicia) Farkas of Seattle, Washington,
Kevin (Jessica) Farkas of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Rachel (Michael)
Phillips of Portland, Oregon, Natalie Pond of Seattle, Washington and Allison
Pond of Newport Beach, California.
She
has three great grandsons: Caden and Connor Farkas of Seattle, and Julian
Farkas of Abu Dhabi.
The
family would like to thank St. Luke’s Hospice for their special care of Mom,
especially Kayla, Athena and Jennifer.
In
lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Eisinger
Gamma Phi Scholarship at the University of Idaho. Please make checks to
University of Idaho Foundation and indicate in the memory of Martha Kuhn and
send to: University of Idaho Foundation, 875 Perimeter Dr., MS 3143, Moscow, ID
83844-3143.
At
her request, there will be no funeral.
The family will meet with friends for a Celebration of Life in Boise on
Friday, September 27, 2019 from 4-7 p.m. at the Stonehouse, 709 E. Park Blvd.,
Boise 83712.
Burial took place at Rose Hill Cemetery, in Idaho Falls.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Martha Rigby Pond Kuhn, please visit our flower store.
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