Curt Buher was a big guy. The hole he leaves behind is big, too.

Buher, who died Dec. 20, came to town with his wife Lori in 1979 to housesit for Maxine Wyman and never left. “They knew that La Conner was where they wanted to be,” said Cathie Wyman, Maxine’s daughter-in-law and Buher’s sister.

As a clerk and driver for Nelson Lumber and as a freelance laborer, Buher grew to love construction. He started Atlas Construction in 1983 with Jim Robertson, his partner for about ten years.

Over the next 30 years, Buher and a crew of locals that included Mike Parker, Michael Graham and Maria...