PORT JEFFERSON STATION, N.Y., and BANGOR – Josef Bobst, 90, husband of the late Elisabethli Bobst, passed away Dec. 14, 2008, at Dirigo Pines Retirement Community, Orono, after an eight-month period of declining health. Josef was born Oct. 31, 1918, in Aedermannsdorf, Kanton Soluthurn, Switzerland, son of Karl Alfred and Paulina Bobst-Stampfli. He was the youngest of seven children. Josef graduated from high school in Switzerland in 1933 at the age of 15. He then went to Strasburg, France, for a year to study French in a Catholic monastery. In 1936, he began a four-year apprenticeship as a machinist with successful completion of a three-day exam and certification in 1940. He worked for the telephone company, during which time he met Elisabethli Enggist in 1947. The lingering effects of the depression years, 1929-1940, made it difficult to find steady work, so he left Switzerland to live with a cousin in New York City, where machinists were in demand for defense contracts. In 1953, he returned to his hometown of Luterbach, Switzerland, where he married Elisabethli, July 17, 1953. Josef and Elisabethli immigrated to the U.S. in the winter of 1954 and initially settled in Flushing, Queens, N.Y. Four years later, they purchased their own home in Port Jefferson Station, Long Island, N.Y., where they lived for 48 years. Josef worked evenings as a machinist and officially retired at 65 after 22 years of service at AIL, Eaton Advanced Electronics. Thereafter, he worked part-time until the age of 75. He was a devoted husband for 53 years, a loving father of three children and five grandchildren, and a good neighbor and friend to countless people. He maintained strong ties to family members in Switzerland and had a passion for anything Swiss. He enjoyed reading, gardening and taking walks at Cedar Beach, Mount Sinai, N.Y. His family will fondly remember him for his keen knowledge of history and world events. Josef helped his children and grandchildren to keep their Swiss heritage alive. Josef is survived by his daughter, Ursula Anna and her husband, Robin M. Pritham, of Bangor; son, Alfred Carl and his wife, Linda Bobst, of Newfields, N.H.; daughter, Rose Mary and her husband, Robert Lorenzo, of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.; and five grandchildren, Emma Elizabeth Bobst, Megan Rose Pritham, Ryan Michael Pritham, Olivia Rose Lorenzo and Nicole Capri Lorenzo. Family in Switzerland, namely his 91-year-old sister, Frieda Bobst, who maintained the Bobst family home in Luterbach, also survives him. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated 11 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 23, at St. John’s Catholic Church, Bangor. Contributions in his memory may be made to Center for Family Medicine, care of Healthcare Charities, P.O. Box 931, Bangor, ME 04402-0931. Condolences to the family may be expressed at www.BrookingsSmith.com.
JOSEF ‘SEPPI’ BOBST
