Al grew up in Selah Washington and attended Selah High School where he lettered in Football and baseball and was Senior Class President.
After graduation Al joined the Us Navy and became a flight engineer, flying many missions overseas. After completing his time in the Navy Al returned to Selah to work on the family farm Melton Orchards. During this time, he met Ann Margret Harris and they were married at St Paul’s Cathedral on 6-2-1962. During the following 40 years Ann and Al raised three children, Michelle, Scott, and Denise.
While raising the family AL and Ann always kept and instilled a deep sense of faith in the Lord and the Catholic Church. Al maintained faith to the very end attending Mass at St Paul’s with Scott, Kirsten, and he boys weekly when his health allowed.
In 1980 Al suffered his first heart attack which led to him leaving the farm to work as a volunteer Selah police officer and for the Yakima County Sheriff’s office, at the Yakima County jail where he worked until his retirement. Al loved his family, hunting and all sports. He lived life on his terms and always had a huge smile and hello for everyone he met.
In the last years Al’s health started to decline but he never wanted to stop being active, so he found card games, breakfast dates and other activities with family, friends from high school, his work, and places he lived to fill his time. During the last month he was no longer able to stay active due to his old heart just not having a lot of time left.
Thus, it was a true blessing that in the company of his children he was able to make the choice to let go, find comfort and peace in what he could do spending quite time with his family. This led to a wonderful passing to his next adventure with all those he loved who have already passed, his Mother and Father (Alice and Orville Melton) his son in law Daniel and especially his wife Ann.
He will be missed dearly by all those that knew and loved him, his children; daughters Michelle and Denise, his son Scott and daughter in law Kirsten, his twelve grandchildren and three great grandchildren, not to mention all those that had the pleasure of knowing him. His funeral arrangement will be thru Keith & Keith with date and time TBD.
Visitation will be held at Keith & Keith Funeral Home on Thursday, February 3, 2022 from 4:00 until 8:00 p.m. with a Vigil service beginning at 5:30 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Paul Cathedral on Friday, February 4, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. A committal service will follow at Calvary Cemetery. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.keithandkeith.com.
