Armand Dean Shinabery

     Armand Dean “Bub” Shinabery, age 90 of Mt. Pleasant and Laingsburg, passed away at Maple Ridge Manor in Lowell, MI on Thursday, October 23, 2025, from the end stages of dementia after a fairly rapid decline in the last year.
     A Celebration of Life Gathering will be held at Clark Family Funeral Chapel in Mt. Pleasant on Saturday, November 8, 2025, from 12:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. Food will be provided and there will be a time for sharing stories and memories of Bub, starting at 12:30. Casual attire is requested. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a contribution in Bub’s honor to Dementia Institute, 2100 Raybrook St SE Suite 303, Grand Rapids, MI 49546. Envelopes will be available at the funeral chapel, or you can make a direct donation: https://dementia-institute.org/donate-now/
     Bub was born on March 2, 1935, in St. Johns to parents Derrill and Laura (Cox) Shinabery. He was united in marriage to Sally Ann Watson in Mt. Pleasant on August 18, 1956.
     After graduating from high school, Bub began his working life at Oldsmobile before starting a long and rewarding career with Chicago Bridge & Iron (CB&I). As a welder, he helped build water towers and storage tanks in communities across the Midwest and beyond, traveling with his family from job to job. In those early years, they lived in a house trailer that Bub pulled from town to town until David was in fourth grade and Danny in seventh. After which, Sally and the boys settled in Mt. Pleasant while Bub continued to travel to job sites, returning home for the weekends.
     Over the years, Bub worked on a wide range of projects, including refinery storage tanks, nuclear containment vessels in Wisconsin, and a NASA project in Sandusky, Ohio, where he served as a welding inspector.
     During one project in New Jersey, a fellow crew member (Jerry Shults -former Navy submariner) arranged for the team to tour a nuclear submarine in Groton, Connecticut—an experience Bub always cherished. One memorable summer took the family to Beulah, North Dakota, where he helped build an LNG facility for a coal gasification plant. Kim, Mom, and Bub stayed at Lake Sakakawea in the family van, while David slept in a tent —just one of many adventures from Bub’s life on the road. He retired from CB&I after a long career, and proof that he must have been a cat with 9 lives from surviving such a dangerous job.
     Bub was a member of the Masons lodge in Alma. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, golfing, woodworking, riding his Harley, and being on the water. He was just shy of earning his full pilot’s license and was passionate about flying. He loved card games and was an expert euchre player. Bub loved children and babies, and was known for being the fun-loving family jokester. He was outgoing and playful; he never met a stranger.
     Bub will be missed dearly by those surviving him, his children: Danny (Paulette) Shinabery of Alto, David Shinabery (Kathy Hendershot) of Mt. Pleasant, and Kim (Tim) Wetherbee of Lowell, grandchildren Darci Wilson, Mandie Cotter, Michael Shinabery, Philip Wetherbee and Taylor Wetherbee, great grandchildren Aleisha, Kole, Avery, Beau, Bella, Wyatt and Lilly, his twin sister, Marcia (Jim) Case of Eaton Rapids, sister Connie Mack of MN, special niece Kathy Hollister of Wisconsin and his significant other, Joanne Decker of Laingsburg, her children: Barry, Sherry and Theresa, grandchildren: Zach, Jovonnah, Curtis and Miranda, and great grandchildren. Bub was preceded in death by his wife, Sally Shinabery, daughter Diana Lynn, his parents, and two sisters; Vangy Kilday and Gwen Truax. Sally’s brothers Jim, Roger and Bob Watson, sister Charlene Merrihew and Sally’s parents Lloyd and Edna Watson.
     The family would like to extend a very heartfelt thank-you to the compassionate staff of Maple Ridge Manor for their exceptional care during Bub’s time there. They cared deeply for Bub, and it showed.
     Online condolences may be made at www.smithfamilyfuneralhomes.com. The family is being served by Smith Family Funeral Homes-Osgood Chapel, St. Johns, Michigan.