Bonnie Mel (Hubbell) Devore

Bonnie Mel (Hubbell) Devore, 73, passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her family on June 28, 2022. She was born on the 4th of July, 1948 in Medford, OR to Melvin and Margaret (Romick) Hubbell. After a few years in Los Angeles, CA and Houston, TX the family settled in Topeka, KS when Bonnie was ten years old. She attended Seaman High School in Topeka, then Kansas State University in Manhattan. She graduated K-State with a bachelor’s degree in Home Economics Education and a master’s degree in Financial Counseling. She and her future husband, John, found each other during the final semester of their undergraduate years. They were engaged after three months, married after nine, and got to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary December 19, 2020.

Bonnie was hired by USD 383 to teach Home Economics classes at Manhattan High School starting in the fall of 1970. This job led John to seek local employment and extended their sojourn in Manhattan for an additional 52 years. She quit this teaching job in 1979 to stay home with their two young sons. In 1985, a year after the birth of their daughter, she became certified as a computer programmer and started working half time at the University Computing Center. In 1988 she returned to full-time teaching, this time at the Manhattan Middle School. After three years of teaching Home Economics, she created the middle school’s first computer education program. For the next 16 years she was “the” middle school computer teacher in Manhattan, even traveling between the two new middle schools that were built in 1996 to ensure that both schools offered computer courses to students. Bonnie loved teaching because she was very much a people person. She loved the students, with her teaching philosophy being “teach the student first and the subject second.” She taught approximately 10,000 students over her three-decade career and kept in touch with many of them afterwards, including those that she had had in her first few years.

After retiring, Bonnie enjoyed traveling with her husband, especially in groups. The travel included overseas river cruises, an ocean cruise, a trip to Scotland to explore her ancestral roots, and Friends of McCain trips to New York and Los Angeles. She served on several organization boards including the ATA Bus board of directors during its expansion years in Manhattan, the Friends of McCain board, and the Sunset Zoo Trust board. Bonnie was an avid believer and member of First Christian Church. She was also in organizations such as PEO and Daughters of the American Revolution. She belonged to card groups, dinner groups, and a mahjong group. Throughout her life she was kind and sociable and truly loved being around people.

Bonnie had many hobbies which included flower gardening, playing cards, playing mahjong, flying, attending McCain performances and K-State athletic events, and interior design. She designed the house she and John built in 1975, which they lived in together for 47 years until her death. She had a private pilot’s license and especially enjoyed takeoffs and landings – so much so that her instructor had to push her to do the required cross-country flights. Eventually she did most of the flying on a trip, with her husband and infant son, to California City. The trip included a landing on the mesa runway at Sedona, AZ with a significant leg of the route flying over the Grand Canyon.

Bonnie was preceded in death by her parents, her sister Karen (Hubbell) Grose, and a stillborn granddaughter Sage Devore. She is survived by her husband John, her sons Bryan and Kevin, her daughter Casey, daughter-in-law Lisa (Clarke) Devore, grandson Coen Devore, brother Richard Hubbell, brother-in-law David Grose, her sister’s sons Donovan and Nolan Grose and Nolan’s wife Sandra, her sister’s daughter Cory Grose and husband Reuben Dohrendorf and their daughter Hayden and son Gavin (Bonnie was their surrogate grandmother), sister-in-law Jewelda (Devore) Scofield and husband Steve, nephew Greg Scofield and wife Dana and sons Max and Cooper, niece Mindy (Scofield) Ott and husband Dan and sons Peyton, Prosper, and Harvest.

A family visitation will be held at the Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen Funeral Home Wednesday July 6 from 6:00-7:30 p.m.

The funeral service will be 10:00 a.m. Thursday July 7 at First United Methodist Church in Manhattan.  A graveside service will follow at Sunrise Cemetery. A luncheon back at the church will follow that service.

Memorial contributions can be made to Good Shepherd Homecare and Hospice Inc. in Manhattan, KS. Contributions may be sent in care of the Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen Funeral Home, 1616 Poyntz Avenue, Manhattan, Kansas 66502.