Earl Arlen Gildehous

Earl A. Gildehous was born Sept. 3, 1930, in Lawrence, KS, to Nancy M. and Earl A. Gildehous. He died June 15, 2021, with family at his side. He was the youngest of nine siblings and is survived by his wife, Phyllis; daughters, Kathy Taylor (Don), Cheri Lockwood (Ed), Cindi Freeman (Tom), Vicki Swanson (Damon); sister, Winifred; seven grandchildren and five great-grandsons. He attended college at Arizona State in Tempe, followed by service in the Navy. He met Phyllis on a blind date and they married in 1954. Through their almost 67 years of marriage, they lived in California and for the last 47 years, Washougal, WA. Earl and Phyllis owned and operated a small business for over 34 years. They had a large garden and small herd of cattle throughout their years in Washougal. Over the decades Earl and Phyllis traveled the world, visiting Africa, Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, and the USA; many states in an RV. They were active members in the First United Methodist Church for all of their married years both in California and Washington. Some of the reasons Earl's family and friends loved him were that he was: E - Energetic: Earl was always willing to help family, friends, or strangers in need and worked long hours to support his family while working for others or in his own business. A - Artistic: Earl played the Sousaphone in the Westwind Community Band and the Vancouver Pops and faithfully sang in the church choir for decades. R - Responsible: Earl never shirked his duties to his family, business, church or any other commitments he took responsibility for. L - Life Long Learner: Earl never missed an opportunity to learn something new. He had an insatiable curiosity for everything from the extraordinary to the mundane. When his kids were young, he took college classes to further his knowledge and in later years, learned new technology to modernize production for his business when the technology was relatively new. He always wanted to know about the inner workings of everything from a ship engine room to a Mennonite dairy farm. His favorite genre for reading was biographies of historical leaders. G - Generous: Earl was generous with his time, energy, and talents for the Girl Scouts, church (among other things, work weekends at church camp), or Kiwanis events. He always worked very long hours to support the family so these 'extras' were particularly dearly contributed but never resented. I - Integrity: Earl was honest and fair with everyone including his employees and customers. He never took a penny he didn't earn. L - Loving: Earl loved all of his family, clearly conveyed through his hard work, but Phyllis was unmistakably the love of his life. D - Deserving: Earl was deserving of respect and gratitude for his service and devotion to his family, God, and country. E - Empathetic: Earl was always empathetic to those less fortunate than him. H - Humor and Humble: Earl had a quick wit and a way with silly faces that his children cherished. He was never boastful about his many accomplishments. O - Open: Earl was always open to new challenges, be it building a truck camper for family camping or fine furniture; learning to drive an eighteen-wheeler to move the family and business over a thousand miles to start anew in a completely different environment or sailing our small sailboat on the open ocean (scary fun for his children when they were leaning over enough in the wind to touch the water!). Thankfully, however, from the children's perspective, the boat ownership challenge was relatively short. U - Upstanding: Earl could be counted on to do what he said he would do. S - Stalwart/Strong: Earl was a stalwart supporter of Phyllis (and his children) and all of the endeavors she enjoyed or committed to participate in such as: her hobbies, PEO, Girl Scouts, church groups, and volunteer work for the schools. He was her self-described, 'pack mule' for all of their travels (even carrying her purse so she could take the pictures). He was always so proud of everything she did and he enjoyed being useful. His was a life well-lived and he will be dearly missed by his family. He was honored at a family-only graveside service at The Evergreen Memorial Gardens.

Earl Arlen Gildehous

September 3, 1930 - June 15, 2021