Clayton Miller Rumsey

Clayton Rumsey was born at home on the Egin Bench, a few miles west of St. Anthony, Idaho in the Upper Snake River Valley. He is the first son and second child of Layne Noel Rumsey and Claudia Miller Rumsey. With 16 aunts and uncles on his father’s side, and numerous Millers from the Mormon Pioneers on his mother’s side, Clay was raised in a rich multicultural heritage with relatives scattered all over the community and beyond. He started his formal education in a one-room school house in rural Heman, Idaho, often walking the mile plus to school and back. When the family built a small house in St. Anthony, he finished his primary education in town.

Clay graduated from South Fremont High School in 1957, and continued his education at Ricks College in nearby Rexburg. With his college education just begun, he and friends took Clay’s car on a ride to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the 4th of July holiday in 1958. Late in the evening the car stopped at the junction to Swan Valley, Wyoming, heading toward Jackson. A collision in the dead of night sent a friend to the promised land, and left Clay in a coma and body badly broken.

A year later at home, he was finally out of his cast and struggling to learn to walk again, his life forever changed by a summer celebration. Finally back on his feet he continued his rehabilitation and completed his Associate of Science from Ricks. He worked summers at whatever he could find to help pay for his coninuing education, surveying roads in the Targhee Forest, maintaining facilities in Yellowstone, doing early surveying and construction on the brand new Interstate 15, and working in mineral processing at the Kellog mines. With characteristic persistence he finished his B.S. in geology at the University of Idaho in the late 1960’s. His first job as a bona fide Geologist was with Idaho State Water Department, measuring and helping manage river flows throughout southeast Idaho.

In 1972, cousin Faye Miller introduced Clay to a southern belle from Kentucky who was pursuing her master’s degree at Brigham Young University. In August, Clay and Avalene (Abbey) Haney were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Abbey started teaching and counselling in the area and he found work in the Forest Service labs on the campus of the University of Utah. In 1980 Clay found his dream job in the Western Field Headquarters of the Bureau of Mines in Spokane, Washington. As a field geologist, Clay spent large portions of springs, summers, and falls trecking over mining claims and natural resources all over the western United States, from Alaska to the Mexican border, from the Pacific to the mountains of Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. He explored and took samples while hiking, driving Jeeps and trucks, dropping in from helicoptors, and being ferried in by bush pilots in small planes. He paid his dues by writing geological reports when he couldn’t be in the field. His long road to education had finally paid off. The Bureau of Mines was abolished in 1996, and Clay retired in 1997.

Clay and Abbey loved to travel, cruising and visiting the Caribbean, South America, Mexico, the Panama Canal, New Zealand, Fiji, and all 50 states together and separately. Clay also loved animals and pets, and gathered quite a menagerie through the years, including gifts, and poor rescued wanderers. Clay loved his wide-spread and numerous family, and his travels included many visits with aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews.

He was preceded in death by beloved grandparents, mother and father, his brother and sister-in-law (Phil and Cheryl), and nephew Chris Gallagher. He is survived by his wife Abbey, brother Hal, sister Vera Gallagher (Bill), and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Clay’s body will be cremated, but memorial services will be held at the Regal LDS chapel, 2721 E 63rd Avenue in Spokane, on Apr 22nd at 2 p.m. You may greet Abbey and family members starting at 1:30 in the foyer. Flowers are not necessary, but will be gratefully accepted at the chapel on the day of the services.

Please sign the register and leave good wishes and memories on the Advantage Funeral and Cremation Services website at https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.AdvantageSouthHill.com__;!!M2D_dUfSiN4E!JG_WltsDA7T0gB0XLIfUJ_xzejSx3asPBh0MWgEg5UWJ6PUceETdqTCOs_7DswPekDqHUI_idMtos1IQktB2$ [advantagesouthhill[.]com].

A memorial service will also be held near his graveside in Parker, Idaho on 22 July at 10 a.m.