Elwood Chaney

Elwood Chaney, age 96, passed away peacefully at his home in his sleep August 13, 2025. Born the same day in 1929 in Wheaton, IL to Theron Bain and Florence Juliet (Coleman) Chaney, he married Eileen Phinney on July 7, 1957. They enjoyed a happy life together, residing in Peoria, IL and raising four children. Eileen preceded him in death November 29, 2007.

Elwood’s parents, two sisters, Betty Ann Chaney, and Dorothy Ward and one brother, Mel Chaney also preceded him in death. Surviving are three daughters, Julia (Steve) Belt, Paula Chaney, and Leslie Chaney (Ken Ray) and one son, Garret Chaney who lived at our family home, helping take care of Eileen until her passing and was caregiver for Elwood until his passing. Elwood also had five grandchildren, Adam (Kelly) Belt, Sarah Klinetobe, Zachary (Vanessa) Ray, Joshua Ray (Madi Mason), and Kyle Ray and three great-grandchildren, Elwood Belt, Waylon Ray, and Brinley Ray.

Elwood grew up in Wheaton, IL. After graduating high school, he attended Case Institute where he received his bachelor’s degree in Metallurgy. He later attended Bradley University where he received his master’s degree in Metallurgy.

Elwood served in the Signal Corps branch of the Army, stationed in Japan during the Korean Conflict. After leaving the service he went to work for Caterpillar as a Metallurgical Engineer in the Research Department at the Tech Center in Mossville, IL. He worked for Caterpillar for 30 years. He and Eileen then moved to Grand Rapids, MI where he worked for General Motors and Entela, Inc. before retiring and moving back to Peoria, IL in 1991.

Elwood and Eileen were members of the First United Methodist churches in Peoria, IL, Dunlap, IL and Grand Rapids, MI where they sang in the church choirs. While in Grand Rapids, they toured with their church choir singing at cathedrals throughout Europe.

Elwood enjoyed volunteering and helping others. From helping to rescue the neighbor’s dog after getting stuck in a culvert, helping neighbors clean up debris and cutting up fallen tree limbs after storms, to giving handouts to the homeless on the streets while shopping in downtown Chicago. He volunteered at his church driving people to and from work who did not have a source of transportation. He was a member of Am Vets and volunteered to hand out poppies at local grocery stores every year. He volunteered at the local libraries teaching people how to read. He also made contributions to dozens of charitable organizations.

A man of many talents and interests, Elwood enjoyed music and performing arts. In high school, he played saxophone in the high school band and jazz band. He and Eileen sang in the Bradley Chorale and Schola Cantorum. They enjoyed going to the Peoria Symphony and Chicago Symphony Orchestras as well as listening to classical music and opera. Elwood and Eileen enjoyed attending plays at the Shubert Theater in Chicago, The Little Theater on

the Square in Sullivan, IL, and Conklin Dinner Theater in Goodfield, IL Elwood also took part and had a cameo role in the play, 110 in the Shade with Peoria Players Theater. Elwood and Eileen also enjoyed going to art fairs and buying paintings by local artists.

Elwood enjoyed many outdoor activities. Elwood and Eileen were members of Willow Knolls Country Club where the family enjoyed playing tennis and swimming. Elwood participated and won first place in three amateur tennis tournaments there.

Summers were spent taking the family on many vacations and camping trips. Some of the most memorable vacations were camping along New England Coast, Cape Hatteras, New Mexico, trips to Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, and Arkansas. Many camp trips would not be complete without enjoying a canoe float along the Buffalo, Current, Merrimac, Fox, and Mackinaw rivers as well as not so enjoyable canoe floats on rivers named the Pine River. Any river named the Pine River, do not canoe it. There were many fond memories of Elwood singing “Up the Airy Mountain” and “Hi Ho” while hiking on camp trips.

Winters were spent ice skating, tobogganing, and skiing. Elwood was an incredibly talented ice skater who would glide around and swoop us up when we fell and carry us while skating backwards around the ice rink. He was also incredibly good at skiing and taught his children to be avid skiers. At least Garret and Leslie. Not so much for Julia and Paula. Ski trips taken were to New Mexico, Sault Ste Marie, Canada, Upper Michigan, and Wisconsin. At Christmastime, Elwood and Eileen took the family on weekend shopping trips in downtown Chicago.

Elwood was a wonderful grandfather. He and Eileen would often travel to Omaha to pick up Adam and Sarah to spend time with them in Peoria and would take Zach and Josh with them on trips to Omaha to visit their daughter, Julia. Elwood enjoyed tagging along and skiing with Zach, Josh, and Kyle on cub scout ski trips, often extending the adventures to Chestnut Mountain. It was important to Elwood that his grandchildren knew how to swim, taking Zach, Josh, and Kyle to swim lessons in the summer. Education was also important to Elwood. He never hesitated to fund opportunities such as sending Zach and Josh to Washington DC, helping with expenses for his grandchildren to further their education after high school and providing financial support for Sarah to travel to China.

Elwood enjoyed playing bridge, chess, reading, going to hockey games, football games and baseball games. He enjoyed woodworking where he was also known as the “glue man.” He enjoyed photography and using his 3-D camera. He had the pictures developed onto slides that were viewable on a projector screen using 3-D glasses or a 3-D viewfinder. Many family

gatherings were spent reminiscing about the people and places on the slides as he showed them on a screen using his projector.

We will never forget some of his sayings: “I am not trying to lecture”, “because is not an answer”, “let’s go to the chalkboard”, “we are not going up, we are going North,” “it’s not down, it’s South”, “beauteous” and “just wait for the good things to happen.”

Elwood was the best husband, father, and grandfather a family could ever have. We will always love him and remember him in our hearts. We will deeply miss him.

To respectfully honor Elwood’s wishes, there will be no visitation or funeral services. Interment will be scheduled at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Elwood’s memory to a charity of choice.