BERNE — Every summer for many years, George Bosset would travel with his wife and children from their home in New Jersey to Westerlo’s Lake Onderdonk, imitating the trips he had taken with his own parents, who owned a camp there.

Mr. Bosset loved his experiences at the lake and in the Hilltowns so much that he built a house in Berne, along with most of the furniture inside of it, and moved his family there in 1967. A senior traffic engineer for Essex County, New Jersey, Mr. Bosset spent 15 years traveling between his two homes so that he could see his family on the weekends while continuing to work on the house where he would spend the rest of his life. 

Mr. Bosset died on Sunday, April 10, 2022. He was 98, just two days shy of his 99th birthday. 

He was born in Maplewood, New Jersey, on April 12, 1923, and lived there until he joined the military during World War II. He met his wife, Pauline, while he was stationed in Great Britain.

When they returned to the United States, the couple had a son and two daughters. Although Mr. Bosset split his time between New Jersey and Berne for several years, his younger daughter, Jacqueline Moore, described him as a generous father who ensured “we never went without anything.”

“Even if we didn’t have money, he made sure somehow that we got what we wanted,” Ms. Moore said. 

As an adept craftsman, Mr. Bosset would often make things by hand, such as furniture for his house and pull-toys for his children. And not only did he build the house that the family lived in, in Berne, but a scaled model of it as well. 

“Everybody was so impressed with that,” Ms. Moore said of the model house. 

Mr. Bosset enjoyed working with his hands and anything that took place outdoors, like gardening. And he so cherished animals that he became something of a lightning rod for stray cats, whom he’d let into his house through an ever-open kitty door. 

“They’d all gather around him when he was eating because he’d feed them from the table,” Ms. Moore said. “I think he got maybe half his dinner, and the cats got the rest.”

One of Mr. Bosset’s cats, Nigel, is still looking for him, she said. 

Mr. Bosset was also known for his inclination toward scratch-off lottery tickets.

“I’m not kidding when I say he would spend a couple of hours in each Stewart’s,” Ms. Moore said. “We’d go to Altamont, we’d go to Rotterdam … And everybody knew him, and they knew which scratch-offs he wanted. Everybody loved him.”

His biggest win in one sitting was a couple thousand dollars or so. “He did pretty good,” Ms. Moore said. 

When he got older and working with his hands became more difficult, Mr. Bosset turned his attention to word games, Ms. Moore said, which was an interest shared by his late son, Robert J. Bosset Sr.

“I think everyone is really going to miss him,” Ms. Moore said of her father. She said that he was a hard worker who was always straightforward with people. 

“If you had a question for him, his favorite saying was, ‘Read the book,’” Ms. Moore said. “He would always say that. ‘If you don’t know something, read the book.’”

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George Bosset is survived by his daughters, Jacqueline Moore and Frances Brown; his grandchildren, William Brown Jr., Patricia Brown, and Robert Bosset II; his great-granddaughters Tatianna Brown and Brianna Breault;and several nieces and nephews.

Mr. Bosset’s mother, Theresa Zicardi; his step-father, Clinton Sisson; and his son, Robert Bosset Sr., died before him.

At Mr. Bosset’s request, there will be no funeral services.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Albany Stratton Veterans Affairs Hospice or to an animal rescue of the donor’s choice.

Memorial messages may be left at altamontenterprise.com/milestones

— Noah Zweifel