Taped to her desk on a piece of paper in Sharon Bond’s handwriting is the following saying: “Take all the time to tell the ones you love how much you really care . . . time passes by and you never get it back.”   Over the two years after she was diagnosed with lung cancer she told all of her friends, all of her family, and all of her caregivers just how much she loved each of them, and they, in turn, told Sharon just how much they loved her.   Sharon did not start the process of dying after her diagnosis.   Rather, she lived her final two years the same way that she lived her previous 76 – with dignity, grace, a sense of humor, and with an appreciation of the beauty inherent in even the smallest of things.   Sharon died peacefully on October 15, 2016, surrounded by her three children, Jill, Mark and Kirk.

      Sharon was born and raised and lived most of her life in Butte, Montana.   She moved back to Butte after living in Columbia Falls for 13 years with her first husband, Ron Bond, and obtained a teaching degree from Western Montana College.   She later obtained a master’s degree from Northern Montana College.   She embarked on a distinguished 40-year teaching career in 1973 in which she began as a kindergarten teacher at Hillcrest and ended as an on-line computer instructor at Western Montana College in 2013.

      Sharon touched the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of students in a multitude of positive ways.   Many of her former students told her that she had inspired them to become teachers.   She went above and beyond what was expected of her as an educator, for instance, learning sign language so she could integrate two deaf students into a public school, then teaching sign language to the deaf students’ classmates so all of the children could communicate with each other.   She willingly took on students with significant disabilities who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to attend public schools.   For Sharon, “no child left behind” wasn’t a political slogan; it was how she conducted her career.

      Sharon was instrumental in introducing modern technology into the Butte School District in the 1980s.   She helped to develop a curriculum for teaching personal computing and she taught computer technology courses at West Junior High and East Junior High for more than a decade.

      She was immensely active in the Butte community.   She was actively involved in the Retired Teachers Association, the PEO Sisterhood, Rainbow Girls, Delta Kappa Gamma and the Business and Professional Women’s Club, just to name a few.   Her network of friends was vast.   She had her golfing friends, her bowling friends, her Red Hat Society friends, her teacher friends, her line-dancing friends and her lunch bunch friends.   She played hard with them, she laughed hard with them and she loved them all just as much as they loved her.   Her passing has left a void in the hearts of hundreds in her community.

      Surviving family members include her son, Mark Bond and his wife Judy of Butte, and their children, Kelly, Brett, Kacy and Brock;   her daughter, Jill Sampson and her husband Dan of Helena, and their four children, Brooke, Riley, Evan and Shea;   her son, Kirk Bond and his wife Robyn of Australia, and Kirk’s children Jamie and Bobby;   her brother and sister-in-law, Jack and Maureen Evans of Butte;   her sister, Gaylene Evans of Olympia, Washington;   her step-daughter, Lori Rosencrans and her husband Doug of Seattle, and their children, Brandon and Christina;   her step-daughter, Cindi Haller of Seattle and her children, Shaylen and Abigail;   her step-daughter, Wendi Hubacka of Scottsdale, Arizona;   her mother-in-law, Agnes Kindt of Butte;   her nieces, Suzanne Evans and Julie Johns, both of Butte, and their families, and her nephew, Brad Evans of Butte.
She was predeceased by her husband, Don Hubacka;   her brother, Don Evans;   and her parents, John and Bonnie Evans.

      Sharon’s family invites you to a celebration of her life at 12:00 pm on Thursday, October 20, 2016 at Saint Ann’s Catholic Church in Butte, with visitation beginning at 11:30 am.   Immediately after the celebration, her ashes will be buried at a public ceremony at Mt Moriah Cemetery, followed by a reception at Saint Ann’s Hall.

      Memorial gifts can be made to the “Sharon Bond Memorial Scholarship Fund,” c/o Butte High School, 401 S. Wyoming Street, Butte, MT 59701, or to the donor’s favorite charity.

      Express condolences at www.wayrynen-richards.com or go to www.mtstandard.com.