April 24, 1938 – May 31, 2023

Rex Benow Bounds, our loving husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother and friend, passed away at home May 31 at age 85. Rex was born to Alvin Duard Bounds and Clarecie Ella Ivy on April 24, 1938, in Springfield, Oregon. When he was 3 years old, his family moved to Ashland, where he lived the rest of his life.

Rex learned to work hard when he was just a young boy, taking care of the animals and moving the irrigation lines on their farm. Rex was very good with his hands and could fix just about anything. He helped his dad work on diesel truck engines as a young teen, then drove his dad’s semi-trucks, hauling produce up and down the West Coast. He continued to work with his dad most of his life, and nobody worked harder than Rex.

After graduating from Ashland High School, Rex served a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Western States Mission, serving in Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, and Wyoming. He had fond memories of the people he met on his mission.

After his mission, Rex attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, in the pursuit of a teaching degree. While doing his student-teacher training, he realized rather quickly that teaching preteens and teenagers was not for him.

Shortly after leaving college, Rex joined the Army Reserves. One of his responsibilities was to make coffee, but with no experience at it, the coffee did not turn out well and he was told that he really was no good at making coffee. Regardless, he learned to cook many other Army staples including SOS (“stuff” on a shingle, as he told his kids) and stayed in the Reserves for a number of years.

He met his wife and sweetheart, Jeri Bounds, in Ashland in 1962. She says they were like ships passing in the night for several years before actually meeting each other. Jeri’s brother Dennis convinced him to ask Jeri out. After dating for two years, they were married on June 16, 1964, in the Mesa, Arizona, temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Rex worked for Goodyear for six years until his father convinced him to work at his American Oil gas station. In June 1969, Rex and his dad started the Phillips 66 Service Station known as Bounds 66 Service and eventually sold the American Oil station.

As a tow truck driver, Rex’s CB handle was White Knight, because he really was. His station was the Castle, and his tow truck said “White Knight” on the front bumper. He was always rescuing people — it did not matter what time of day or night or what day of the week: When someone needed help, Rex was there.

He spent his life helping people that were down on their luck, whether the problem was a broken car or an empty wallet. We have heard countless stories from the people he helped, while often asking for nothing in return.

In 1974, Rex became a U-Haul dealer. He ran his U-Haul dealership for 42 years, until 2016. He had the longest-running U-Haul dealership in Southern Oregon, and only closed it when his station closed. Rex took every reservation he could, even if he did not have the equipment on site, and he would do whatever it took to get what his customers needed, including driving to the coast, to Redding, California, or Portland and back to pick up equipment.

When his kids got old enough, he recruited them to help pick up equipment for his U-Haul reservations. He once convinced two college students who didn’t know each other but were heading to the same town to rent the one large truck he had because he could not get the two smaller trucks that had been requested.

Rex served on the Ashland School Board from 1983 to 1987 and was the chairman of the School Board for the last two years. While he was chairman, he participated in his daughter Deni’s graduation and surprised her by being the one to hand her diploma to her as she walked across the stage, making that day even more special.

Even though he had never previously liked dancing, later in his life, Rex took up square dancing with his wife, Jeri. They really enjoyed going to the weekly dances and even traveled to out-of-area square dance conventions. Rex served as president of Lords & Ladies, the local square dance club, then was secretary of the regional Rogue Sis-Q Council, and later was the regional representative to the Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dancing Clubs. In everything he did, from work to church to school board to square dancing, he found a way to serve people.

The older Rex got, the more hunched over his back became. He, and everybody else, thought it was from bending over engines for so many years. After he was finally diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2007, he learned that it was a symptom of his Parkinson’s.

Even after his diagnosis, Rex continued to work on cars, rent U-Hauls, and serve his customers until he broke his left leg so severely that even after four surgeries, including a bone marrow transplant, it never fully healed and he was forced to retire at the age of 75. If he had not broken that leg, he would have worked until his very last day. And in his Parkinson’s dementia state of mind, he did.

Rex existed on peanut butter and honey (lots of honey) sandwiches, Snickers bars, ice-cold milk by the gallon — chocolate milk if he wanted a treat, and an endless supply of his sister Lee’s chocolate chip cookies and his daughter Deena’s chocolate.

He is survived by his wife, Jeri Bounds; his children and their spouses — Deni (Brian) Goodwin, Greg (Michelle), Deena (Kevin) Branson, and Shelley Underhill (Craig Birkhimer); his siblings and their spouses — Dennis (Tonna), Dallen, Lee Gettling, Melody (Gordon) Olson, Josh (Tina) and Rosellen (Arona); eight grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and many cousins, nieces and nephews. Rex was preceded in death by his parents Alvin Duard Bounds and Clarecie Ella Ivy Bounds Abbott, and his siblings Alvana Lorea Bounds and Julianna Alona Bounds, grandson Geoffery Allyn Villers and great-granddaughter Paisley Elaine-May Branson.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 24, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 111 Clay St., Ashland. He will be laid to rest at Mountain View Cemetery, Ashland, alongside his family.

He is loved more than we can express and is missed by all of us.

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