Mom and Dad
1967 Photo
My father achieved a lot for a man who never finished high school. Dropping out was a common thing to do during the Great Depression. In those days, college educations were not needed to get most jobs, and the cost of this type of education was unaffordable for many depression-era families.
In the 1930s, dad moved to Bend, Oregon, where he got a job with the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in Oregon and California. While he was in California, his first love broke up with him. Just months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, dad was inducted into the Army (160th Infantry, 80th Infantry Brigade, 40th Infantry Division). He fought in the Pacific Theater (mainly in the Philippenes and New Britain) and he was also briefly stationed at Guadal Canal (his unit arrived after the Marines had left). While he was fighting in the Philippenes, he was promoted to Staff Seargent and was transfered into Army Intelligence. For his efforts in directing the elimination of enemy sniper activity during a heated battle on Luzon Island, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal by Major General Rapp Brush.
After the war, dad returned to Libby where he met and married my mother. He held various jobs, including one elected term as Lincoln County Treasurer. The last 30 years of dad's life was spent working for the local lumber mill, where he was eventually promoted to foreman in the mill's maintenence department.
Dad died while I was at college in Tacoma, Washington.
My mother was born and raised on a North Dakota farm. She attended a 2-year teacher's college and then taught in Oriska, North Dakota and Outlook, Montana before accepting a teaching position in Libby, Montana. After marrying my father in 1946, she taught for another 15 years. Then I came along, and mom taught part-time into the early 1960s, when she decided to stay at home full time.
Mom died in 1993 after a long illness.