Up until only a few months before his death, on Sunday night, John Amos Nosler, founder of Nosler Inc., went to the office nearly every day.

The 97-year-old, who invented bullets that changed the hunting industry, officially retired in 1988, when his son, Robert Nosler, purchased the company. But he still showed up at the office, greeted employees and often handed out candy. His grandson, who is now the vice president of the company and named after his grandfather, said the older man’s responsibilities waned but his mission was clear: to make everyone a little happier.

Nosler was the type of employer whose employees felt they worked with him, not for him.

One man who worked for him since 1969 wrote him a letter saying so: “You were more than our boss. And you were someone that we all looked up to, a role model of the highest caliber. You taught us to believe in ourselves …

“When work was slow, you sent us to your house to work, so we always had a full paycheck, as an old timer, I will never forget that. … You were the finest boss and friend anyone could ask for.”

It’s a sentiment that his family can also appreciate. Nosler’s namesake said his grandfather taught him to hunt and fish. When he was younger, he said, he could always trust his grandfather would be in the stands at all his football games. He taught the younger John Nosler and a friend to drive in the Badlands before they were 15. In short, he was a family man.

There will not be a day that goes by, John R. Nosler, 32, said, that the family the older man left behind won’t think of him.

“He was just a great guy,” John R. Nosler said. “He would give his shirt off his back for you. … He was lighthearted, and he didn’t take life too seriously. But he worked extremely hard.”

The company that created the Partition, Ballistic Tip, and AccuBond bullets, among others, employs about 100 people, many with the same last name as the founder.

“My mom, my dad, both my sisters, I have three brother-in-laws that work (at Nosler Inc.). It’s truly a family business,” John Nosler said.

Born in 1913, on a farm in Brawley, Calif., Nosler was a self-taught engineer. He always loved to hunt. During the Great Depression, he quit high school and got a job in a Ford garage. He quickly worked his way up the ranks at Ford. He created a counterbalance system for the Model A crankshaft, which helped solve a problem that afflicted early Fords, according to archived information from The Bulletin. The Ford Motor Co. offered to send him to engineering school. Instead, he built up a small trucking business, which delivered fresh California produce to Oregon markets. He also married his first wife, Louise.

It was after a hunting trip in the Canadian coastal range, during which he shot a moose seven or eight times before it fell, that he decided there had to be a better way. He sketched. He made a hand press and created some partition bullet prototypes. The bullet, according to the company’s website, has a “legendary level of accuracy, controlled expansion and weight retention in any caliber.” With the prototypes, Nosler went back to British Columbia. This time, he brought down a bull moose with one shot.

Nosler started manufacturing the bullets himself. He was based in Ashland, and moved the company to Bend in 1956.

“He sold the trucking company and put all his money into the bullet company. … He wasn’t afraid to do anything,” said Vivian Nosler, 86, who married John A. Nosler 18 years ago after his first wife died.

Gary Lewis, who wrote a book about Nosler, “Going Ballistic,” wrote about him, “I think of the boy with the .22 rifle over his shoulder, fixing the machinery when it broke, going to work to keep food on the table for the family. … Then I think of not only his success but also his failures. … He never thought of them as failures. (Just) another bump in the road and keep on going.”

Nosler traveled all over the world and across the world and those who know hunting, know Nosler. Still, his wife said he was able to relish the small pleasures of life, such as enjoying a glass of wine with her before dinner.

“We just had a happy, fun life,” Vivian Nosler said.

“We had … lots of family to love and good friends to love. I don’t think there’s any man I know of that is as admired and as loved as much as he was,” she said.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be given to the John A. Nosler endowment, through the National Rifle Association or to Partners in Care, a hospice provider in Central Oregon. A public memorial will be held. The dates will be announced later.