Diane Rosalie Bungum

Diane Rosalie (Monagan) Bungum was born August 25, 1945, in rural
central New York, near the city of Cortland. Her parents were Clifford
and Elinor Monagan, both lifetime employees of the Smith-Corona
Typewriter factory in nearby Groton, N.Y. Diane and her older sister
and younger brother grew up on a pre-Civil War 56-acre farm where over
the years they kept a few horses, cows, pigs, ducks and chickens, as
well as the usual dogs and cats. It was a rural life in dairy country,
a life she dearly loved, and missed when she left it for college.

She attended the State University of New York in Albany for a couple
of years, then joined VISTA and moved to western Oregon in 1965, where
she worked with migrant worker families. After that she had various
short-term jobs in the Portland area, including several as a waitress.
She met and married Richard Humphrey there and they had a son, Aiden,
before they were divorced. She completed her B.A. degree in English
from the University of Oregon in 1973.

That year she met Steve Bungum, a former high school English teacher;
they married in Eugene in 1974 and moved to The Dalles the next day,
where her husband worked for the next 28 years as Library Media
Specialist at The Dalles High School. Their son Peter was added to the
family in 1977. Before the office closed, she worked for several years
at Oregon Legal Services (legal aid). That was followed by several
years at the local Community Action Program and at the Center for
Living, where she was employed until her retirement in 2002.

Diane was a kind-hearted, hard-working person who could empathize with
others, especially those whose life was difficult. She was beloved of
many of the developmentally disabled adults she assisted over the
years, and enjoyed attending parties and dances with these folks, put
on by the ARC of Oregon. She was an avid life-long reader, regularly
coming home with a large pile of books from the public library, a
habit she continued long after being diagnosed with dementia
around 2020. Diane also loved to travel, and made trips back
to see her folks in the home she grew up in, in central N.Y.,
sometimes with her husband, sometimes alone. Together they visited
many relatives, most of whom in the Midwest and East. She also often
indulged her husband's love of camping and photographing around Oregon
and the West, and also enjoyed travel offering more comfy sleeping
arrangements, like hotels, motels, and B & B's!

Diane always liked to be busy doing something, like walking, hiking
gardening, cooking and reading. She really liked to watch a good movie
in the evening, especially with popcorn! She was very proud of Aiden
and Peter, both of whom have advanced degrees, and loved them dearly,
and her eight wonderful grandchildren, who loved their Grandma Diane,
and several of whom stepped up to help her as her disease progressed.
She was moved to a care facility in Eugene in early July, where, after
suffering many difficult times, she passed away on September 29th.

Basically, Diane was a sweet, loving, understanding (usually!) and
kind human being, doing her best to be a life-enhancer for others. She
will be dearly missed.

Diane is survived by her husband Steve, sons Aiden and Peter, and
grandchildren Isaac, Johnpaul, Joseph, Lillian, Evan, Jeremy, Runa and
Haakon. No funeral is planned. Remembrances can be made to the ARC of
Oregon, Hospice of the Gorge, and Wasco County Humane Society.

Spencer, Libby and Powell Funeral Home in care of arrangements.