Harold J. and Muriel E. Hoile

HAROLD J. HOILE MURIEL E. HOILE Harold Junior Hoile, age 86, and Muriel Patricia Hoile, age 92, passed away peacefully within days of each other--he on December 6 and she on December 17, 2010. Both were residents of Bethel Retirement Community in Modesto, California. Harold was born in Madison, Wisconsin, to the late Edmund and Thelma Hoile (nee Kraner). Muriel was born in Blue Island, Illinois, to the late Arthur and Elvira Engelland (nee Schreiber). They were the parents of Christopher Edmund Hoile of Toronto, Canada; Philip Carson Hoile of Escalon, California; and Patricia Katherine Lude of Manassas, Virginia; and grandparents of Robert Christopher Hoile of Davis, California. Harold is predeceased by his sister Dolores Kleist, his brother Kenyon Hoile and his niece Barbara Schneider and survived by his niece Deborah Beischel and his nephew David Kleist. Muriel is predeceased by her brother Arthur and survived by her sisters Jane Schmitt of Lafayette, Indiana, and Majorie Jarasek of Mequon, Wisconsin, and by her nieces Suzanne Kahn, Nancy Garland, Ellen Hiday, Sally Lucia and nephew Paul Jarasek. Harold was a member of the Elks Lodge in Los Gatos, California. Muriel was an active member of the music society Sigma Alpha Iota and the P.E.O. Sisterhood. Muriel obtained a B.A. in English from Lawrence College (now Lawrence University) in Appleton, Wisconsin, where she later taught voice. She met Harold when he became her voice student. Upon her winning a scholarship to join the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera, Harold and Muriel moved to New York City and were married on October 25, 1945 at the Riverside Church, where their wedding was attended by Muriel's colleagues in the chorus. Both studied voice in New York with Rosalie Miller. Muriel also sang with the Robert Shaw Chorale. Muriel's voice had a rare beauty that combined the richness of her contralto range with the crystalline timbre of a soprano. Faced with the choice of moving to Germany to begin an opera career or starting a family in the U.S., she chose the latter. When she was hired as a Professor of Voice by Lawrence College, the couple moved to a farm in Black Creek, Wisconsin. As a sales representative for Klenzade Products, Inc., Harold was transferred first to Pittsburg, Kansas, and then to Fresno, California, finally settling in Los Gatos, California in 1956 where the couple lived until 1989 and where all three children graduated from Los Gatos High School. There Harold became the sales representative for all of California and Nevada for Paper Products, Inc., and Muriel gave private voice lessons as well as singing as a soloist and chorister with various choirs. She also worked as a city librarian for the Los Gatos Public Library from 1968 to 1989. In 1989 the couple retired to Lodi, California, where they resided until 2006. Harold's interest in golf and classic films and the couple's love of purebred dogs, classical music, opera and theatre have had a lasting impact on all three children. While the children feel the passing of both parents in such close succession is a difficult double blow, they also recognize that it reflects the mutual love their parents shared--so deep that they literally could not live without each other. An informal memorial service for the couple took place at Bethel Retirement Community on Dec. 18, 2010. Summer interment will be at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin, the resting place of Harold's parents, brother and grandmother Mattie Kraner. As expressions of sympathy, memorial donations may be made to the Parkinson's Disease Foundation (www.pdf.org) or to Community Hospice (www.hospiceheart.org). www.modbee.com/obituaries