William Samuel Swenson

Nov 2, 1921 - June 1, 2011

Our father passed away June 1, 2011 after a year of failing health. He was born in Minot North Dakota. During his youth he belonged to the C.C Corps, before joining the Marine Corps. During WWII he served in the South Pacific at Guadalcanal, Guam, and Okinawa.

In 1945 he married his wife, Eleanor. In the first couple years they lived in Butte, Montana, where he worked in the mines. His firstborn, Kathleen was born in Butte. After returning to Portland, their son Terry was born, and several years later Lynelle came along.

Bill was a lifetime member celebrating almost 65 years with the Operating Engineers, Local 701. During this time he operated heavy equipment, digging ditches, running cranes, and big cats. He worked all over the state of Oregon during his years of working for the union. He retired from them in 1980, after falling off one of the rigs, and hurting his back.

While growing up dad would take us on road trips, sometimes just a day ride to the coast, and other rides that turned into overnighters. On one trip he took us up to Mt. St. Helens, where the snow was piled higher than our car. On another trip we were at Winchester Bay on the coast, when he came back to the camper to let us know that he was taking us, Kathy and Lynelle, out deep sea fishing. Now of course, we had just ate lunch, and Kathy being a true fisherman, she had no problems going out deep sea fishing, but Lynelle, she puked her guts out the entire time and kept asking Dad, “how much longer until we go back?”

Dad loved to fish, and that is one of the memories that Terry has of our father, coming home from work and telling him, “Let’s go fishing.” Our mother remembers camping at Sunset Beach, clam digging, and waking up one time to Elk tracks right next to their sleeping bags when they were camped at Nekanicum, down by Seaside. One of Lynelle’s memories is that he always seemed to find railroad tracks to camp by, so that in the middle of the night you would get woke up to the sound of the train going by.

When Lynelle was a teenager, mom and dad would often load up the camper with 3 or 4 teenage girls, and take them camping too. We would go up to the Ty Valley Indian rodeo, camping on the Deschutes, and water skiing at Lake Billy Chinook. Lynelle’s friend Janet remembers dad always telling her to come in and take a load off your feet.

He enjoyed the friendships of his neighbors, and their children, Irv, Lucille, Gareth, and Lisa, Bob, Sonja, Bobby and Gerri. They are all like part of our family. Bobby also loves fishing and so him, and Uncle Bill always had some fishing stories to tell, along with talk about baseball. Gareth sent an e-mail recalling how dad took him fishing to Seaside, and fixed a window that he broke while his mom and dad were gone. Other friend ships included Burt and Marge next door neighbors and dear friends Henry, Dorothy and children Alfred, Marta and Joyce in Montana whom we visited on many trips to Montana. All the children listed above are all adults now and some others listed have passed.

Dad was one that was always there to lend a helping hand, whether you were a neighbor, or someone broke down along the road.

In 1982 his one and only granddaughter, Medina, was born. She was the apple of his eye. He took her to pre-school, swim lessons, taught her how to garden, and of course, camping! One of their favorite places to camp was on the Metolius River. They also enjoyed taking her during summer vacation to other places like Yellow Stone, The Grand Canyons, and Disneyland. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kathy and mom also took her to Hawaii. Medina now lives in the little house that he built, and raised us in. He loved having her living there on the other end of the property, and would often say that he didn’t know that when he built that little house he was building for a granddaughter someday.

Our family would like to thank the Veterans for the homecare (Senior Innovative Care) that they gave him during this last year of his life. We would also like to thank Good Samaritan Hospital for all the care, and comfort that they gave him.

He was such a good man, and had so many friends. With his passing we all know that he is in a better place now, with our loved ones who have passed before us. We all loved him dearly, and will miss him always, and know that someday we will see him again.

Arrangements under the direction of Young's Funeral Home, Tigard, OR.