August Weddle

August Edward Weddle retired from his last duty station, “Earth,” on January 21, 2021 at age 92 at his home Ponderosa Assisted Living with family comforting him. Dad wanted to be with mom and gave up (only time we ever saw him give up) and died of kidney failure. He was youngest of five children born to Charles Vernon and Dorothy Louise (nee Whippey) Weddle on February 25, 1928, at Dayton, Washington, joining Richard, Louise, Alvas and James. His parents divorced when he was four and Dorothy and children went to live at Union Gap, Washington with grandparents Charles and Maria Whippey. The only father figure Eddie knew was his grandfather, a retired mariner and yacht racing captain, who would influence his career choice. His grandmother Marie (who had worked as governess for the Louis Comfort Tiffany family) would face frustration trying to civilize four boys. One of the things Eddie did caused quite a stir; with friends tossing rocks down off the gap (the two hills known as Two Buttes), one rock rolled down and landed in the irrigation canal causing a hole. Water gushed out and closed the road through the gap from Yakima to the Lower Valley. The boys ran as fast as they could home and never told a soul until now. With best friend Dick Manka and brother, Jim, there was probably trouble brewing all the time and miscellaneous snakes, lizards and skunks. Ed started out as a “young fool” (his words) at age 13, running away from home and finding work in Seattle on a fishing boat. He ended up in a jail cell in Seattle for truancy and his mother was contacted. Too young to follow his brothers into WWII, he joined the Merchant Marines at 16. He got blood poisoning on the ship and was sent to Attu in the Aleutian chain. This was an opportunity to ride on a B-25 medium bomber sent to bomb a significant Japanese air and naval base on the Island of Paramushiro. Back on a new merchant ship, “Cape Orange,” and headed to Guam, Japanese planes attacked and he manned the 20 mm gun. He was hit with shrapnel in his leg, his only war injury. He joined the Coast Guard in WWII at age 17 on August 2, 1944, and served until WWII ended. He worked in San Francisco at California Packing Corporation moving flour sacks. He thought to himself, “If I join the Navy, I would have three square meals a day and a bed.” He joined in December 1945, spending 22-1/2 years, retiring July 26, 1968 with the rank of Storekeeper Chief Petty Officer. He retired from the reserves on December 1, 1974, having served in WWII, the Korean War and Viet Nam Conflict. When people thanked him for his service, he would reply “No, thank you for paying into my Navy retirement.” Ed served at Port Blakely, USN & MC RES TRA CEN, Tucson, FLAG AD Unit COMFLTAIR Ford Island, Hawaii and several times at U.S. NAV AIR STA Alameda, California. He served on the ships U.S.S. Lowry (DD 770), Rendova (CVE 114), Boxer (CVA 21), Hassayampa (AO 145), Bolster (ARS 38), Moctobi (ATF 105), and Zelima (AF-49), his favorites being the Boxer and Zelima. Ed participated in Operation Ivy atomic tests at Eniwetok Proving Ground, Marshall Islands, conducted by the Army, Navy, Air Force and Atomic Energy Commission in the fall of 1952. He was initiated into the Solemn Mysteries of the Ancient Order of the Deep crossing the equator bound for Sydney, Australia in May 1947. Dad’s medals: American Campaign, World War II Victory, Navy Occupation Service Medal with “Asia” clasp, China Service, National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Star, Korean Service, Armed Forces Expeditionary, Republic of Viet Nam Campaign, United Nations Service and six Good Conduct Medals. Retiring in 1968, we moved from San Lorenzo, California to Goldendale, Washington. Opening up an auto repair shop, he was a perfectionist and couldn’t charge enough for the work he did but those autos ran well after Ed worked on them. He joined the Goldendale Police Department and retired on an arrest-related disability after 14 years. He continued to work with the City of Goldendale on the LEOFF 1 Retirement Board and was a volunteer during elections. Dad met Vivian Jane Washburn while recuperating from a broken back at Oaknoll Naval Hospital, Oakland, in 1949 after an auto accident. He attended USO dances in San Francisco where Vivian was a hostess. She though him “vain and a “wolf.” After a dance he asked to escort her home as her escort had ditched her so she allowed Ed and his friend to take her on the bus to her aunt’s house. After two weeks Ed left again for Port Blakely, Washington; they wrote letters and he asked her to marry him. They were married 68 years before her death on April 7, 2018. Along the way came three military “brats”: Kathleen, Gerald and Demaris. Ed was French, Swiss, English and Welsh on his mother’s side and Scots-Irish and Dutch on his father’s side. He was known for using boondocks, rug rats (for children), catawampus and words he made up: zounds, gadzooks and roark. He loved HO scale model trains and had a layout in a gutted double wide mobile home. School groups and others came to see the layout and run trains and the layout was featured in Model Railroad magazine. He liked costume parties; the games of chess and Risk, card tricks and pulling coins out of ears. Like daughter Demaris, Ed loved poetry and helped lonely sailors aboard ship write love letters home. Many young brides were shocked when they found out their lovers weren’t good with words. Dad was hard working, tackling anything, could be stubborn, but was generous and cared about everyone and was always glad to lend a helping hand when need arose. He even saved a young boy injured in an auto accident. Mother woke up a few times to strangers sleeping in the extra bedrooms when their cars broke down on his police shift and they didn’t have money for a motel. (Those were different times.) He had many talents such as sewing, carpentry, engineering, and machinery and would design a new tool to fix something. He completed 8th grade and earned his high school G.E.D. in the military and passed the officer’s exam. He attended community college as well. He read constantly until blindness took his sight two years ago. He built three homes: his own, one for mother-in-law Edith, and Kathleen’s home; helped Demaris and Devona with home remodeling and helped others in the community of Goldendale with needed projects. Ed loved traveling and maps and visited all the countries in Europe (East and West), England, Scotland, and Wales; Turkey; Russia on the Siberian Express, China and Mongolia; Southeast Asia and Australia while in the military; New Zealand; South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Senegal; Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Canada and Mexico and all 50 states driving a Chevy. They were in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland; Egypt in 2009; and China and Tibet where he took the high altitude train; and India at age 89, totaling 59 countries and all the continents except Antarctica. Two highlights were the trip to Tierra del Fuego and going through the Panama Canal on the newly commissioned U.S.S. Boxer that replaced the old Boxer. Ed served the Boy Scouts of America for over 50 years, in Hawaii, California, and Washington as Scout Master, earning the Silver Beaver, District Award of Merit, and was District Chairman. He went as leader to Camp Merryweather in Oregon, Philmont in Arizona and to Camp Fife on Chinook Pass, Washington. He was proud son Jerry and grandsons Greg and Anthony were Eagle Scouts; granddaughter Colleen a Search and Rescue Explorer; and great-grandson Matthew is in the program. Ed was so good with children that when he was younger, neighborhood children would come to the door and ask if “Mr. Weddle could come out and play.” He helped his children and their friends build forts, stilts, tunnels, go carts, tree houses, etc. Our childhood was left with memories of hiking, playing games, identifying bugs and plants, astronomy, basketball, swimming and cliff diving. Ed was a Director on the Board for the Goldendale Observatory. A highlight was when the Observatory was the center for the eclipse of the sun in February 1979 and was loaned a moon rock for the occasion from NASA. Ed, as a police officer, guarded the rock at his home until the rock was moved to the Observatory. He and Vivian invested many years in fundraising for Goldendale Observatory. He tutored math and reading in his 70s and 80s for 16 years for the Goldendale School District, and was on the Policy Council for Headstart. He also received Klickitat County Citizen of the Month in 1997. Ed loved fast cars, built one, owned an Alfa Romeo, and his pride and joy was a 1967 Ferrari 275GTB. Ed restored the car with son Jerry doing the body work; later it was sold to a gentleman in California and the Ferrari was sold to a gentleman in Germany. It is now is in a museum there. After almost 50 years in Goldendale he moved in June 2018 to the Ponderosa Assisted Living facility in Yakima. He still had sight in his right eye so learned his way around the place and, after losing all sight, he could still climb the stairs for meals and visiting. Another milestone was the Covid-19 lockdown in the Yakima Valley. He wrote a short story about Mr. Ponda Rosa and made toilet paper creatures to keep busy. His story and creatures were accepted by Yakima Valley Museum for the Covid-19 display. Dad also contracted Covid-19 but survived with a mild case to go home for rehab. Ed was preceded in death by Vivian, grandparents James Wallen and Electa Ann (nee Cruzan) Weddle; Charles Fredrick and Maria Rosalie (Cornioley) Whippey; his parents; step-father Wilbur Jones; brothers and sister Louise who died at the age of 11 after scarlet fever weakened her heart; step-brother Paul Jones; his in-laws T. Daniel and Edith (Clarke) Washburn; by Vivian’s sister Betty and husband Bill Dabovich; nephews Billy Dabovich, Kenneth, Jim and Stacy Weddle and nieces Annie Heintzman and Roxanne Weddle; also his great nephew Kenneth Weddle Jr. to Covid in August of 2020. Ed is survived by children: Kathleen L. (S. Dean) Sizer, Granger, Washington, Jerry E. (Charlene) Weddle, Oregon City, and Demaris E. Garceau, Corvallis, Oregon. He leaves grandchildren and great-grandchildren: Gregory (Meranda) Sizer and son Noah; Colleen (Matthew) Christenson and Claire and John; Anthony (Janna) Sizer and Isabella and George; Stephanie (Corey) Harbott and Audrey, Thor and Madeline; Joel Krause and Nicholas (Katie) Krause and Matthew and Hannah; Melody (Benjamin) Marlow and Brenna and August; and Devona (Ed) Vader and son Forrest and ex-sister-in-law Veta Lane; special nieces Marilynn (Harlan) Briscoe, Yvonne (Cary) Seldon; Vivian’s niece Diana Walcom, and cousins Rosanne (Pat) London and Nelson (Sharon) Clarke; and Weddle nephews and nieces Cherie, Randy, Susan, Brad and Nancy; Bill, Dick and Lorraine, and Terry and Renee and numerous great-nieces and nephews. We recognize family who did extra duty: Colleen took him shopping and lunch out every week for 2-1/2 years; Devona and Ed took him to military events and shopping; great-grandson John Christenson who shopped and brought groceries to him the last four months during Covid-19 every week; and Melody who called him every week. He also received love and care from the staff at Ponderosa Assisted Living and especially Sheri Kirby and Jennifer Shipley who really helped the last week, and Ray Cardenas who he felt was his “personal handy man” for 2-1/2 years, and Brian Sorenson who treated him like a dad. He also enjoyed friends Bob V. and Margaret C. (who knitted items for the Covid-19 museum display). All of you put up with his perfectionism but also his love for you and you returned it like family. Due to Covid-19 there is no memorial service. Valley Hills Funeral Home took care of cremation as he wanted and his ashes will be scattered at a later date to go down the Little Klickitat and Columbia Rivers to the Pacific Ocean. Family and friends will be notified. To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of August Weddle, please visit our flower store.