Robert Lynn Chehey

Robert L. Chehey obituary

Robert L. (Bob) Chehey age 87, died Tuesday evening, September 15 of complications of old age that included high blood pressure, diabetes, and colon cancer.

He was born November 7, 1938 in Gooding, Idaho to Leslie A and Elizabeth Chehey. The family moved to Boise at the start of World War II, when his father signed up to be a military aircraft mechanic at Gowen Field. His family lived in the Whitney Bench area during his childhood and youth. He attended Whitney Elementary School, South Junior High, and graduated from Boise High in 1956. He went on to Washington University in St. Louis Missouri and graduated in 1960 with a BS in Zoology. He joined the US Army and served in the medical corps laboratories in San Antonio, Texas and Anchorage Alaska. After 2 years, 9 months and 11 days, he returned to Boise and went to work for the Idaho Department of Health laboratories. He met Elinor Herkner while working in the lab. They were married in 1965. They moved to Coeur d’Alene in1966 where he ran the regional Health Department lab. After a few years he used his GI Bill and a half time laboratory job to get a masters degree in microbiology at Idaho State University. They returned to Boise where he became the supervisor of the microbiology labs for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. He retired in 1999.

In his youth and young adulthood, Bob collected butterflies wherever he went. His butterfly collection is part of the College of Idaho Natural History Museum.

While they were living in Coeur d’Alene, the local mushroom guru came to Bob in the laboratory and asked him to join the mushroom hunting club. When he returned to Boise, she contacted Ellen Trueblood and told her about Bob. Ellen and Bob and Genny Steiner started the Southern Idaho Mycological Association in 1976, which has hosted 2 or 3 national mushroom hunting forays at McCall. In recent years the club changed its name to Southern Idaho Mushroom Club, which attracted many more members. Bob identified suspect mushrooms for poison control centers, from pictures and habitat descriptions emailed to him.

After he retired, he joined the U of I Extension Master Gardeners .and volunteered with them for about 20 years

Bob and Elinor Chehey have one son Steven. Bob had 2 younger sisters, Susan and Linda. Susan died of cystic fibrosis when she was about 2. Linda drowned in the New York Canal from a teenage driving mishap.

Bob and Elinor are members of First United Methodist Church in Boise, where Bob sang tenor in the choir for 40 or more years. Services are pending at the church on September 24.