Lloyd Phillip Love Jr.

Lloyd Phillip Love, Jr., passed away from natural causes in Portland, Ore., on Feb. 18, 2007, just after his 87th birthday. Born in Portland Feb. 16, 1920, Lloyd was the older of two sons of Lloyd Philip Love, Sr. and Mildred Jeanette Riggs. He was the great-grandson of 1849 Oregon pioneer Captain Lewis Love, whose ancestors emigrated in the 1730s from northern Ireland to Rhode Island. While his father was fortunate to be employed during the Depression, Lloyd worked hard to help the family, delivering the Oregonian and working summers at his grandfather Riggs' farm in Canby, Ore. Lloyd attended Alameda Elementary School, and excelled academically and athletically at Grant High School where he was the 1938 class Salutatorian. He earned that year's award as the athlete with the highest GPA. Admitted to the US military academies, he chose instead to attend Harvard University on scholarship. His college years started memorably in fall, 1938, when a major hurricane struck New England. Because of his writing ability, in his freshman year he was exempted from the writing class and recognized for the best paper in his Physics class. He set a Harvard record for the javelin throw. While he intended to pursue a medical career, with the onset of World War II he decided to leave Harvard to enlist in the Army Air Force, where he became a training instructor for bombardiers and navigators. Upon returning to Portland, he met the love of his life, Julia E. Ballantyne, at choir practice at Fremont Methodist Church, and they were married in August, 1940. They celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary in 2006. Lloyd's wartime experience passed uneventfully, with one exception. On a training flight in southern California, with few planes available another navigator replaced him. That flight crashed, and the Oregonian initially listed Love as one of the dead. Just before his deployment to Japan, the atomic bomb abruptly halted the war! Lloyd returned to resume his pre-medical studies, briefly attending Reed College. But because he was married with one child and another on the way, he thought it prudent to seek employment, and followed in his father's footsteps in the US Post Office. He began his postal career as a clerk at the Piedmont Station in North Portland, advancing quickly to become a Postal Inspector. He was assigned to Boise, Idaho, in 1952. He traveled extensively, and occasionally brought his children with him to such exotic locations as Stibnite, Picabo and Yellow Pine, Idaho, and Fields, Ore. He completed several three-month stints in Alaska flying with bush pilots to remote villages. Lloyd retired in 1976 as Branch Chief of the US Postal Service in Portland. Religion played an important part in Lloyd's life. He served as a Sunday school teacher at First Methodist Church in Boise, and, after returning to Portland in 1969, served as Treasurer at Centenary Wilbur Methodist Church. He was a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church for over 20 years. In retirement he was an active volunteer with Meals on Wheels, continued his love of the piano and enjoyed grandparents' days with his granddaughters back at Alameda School. Lloyd was a lifelong Democrat, and was honored to serve as a pallbearer at Frank Church's funeral in 1984, in Boise. Ironically, Lloyd's forebear Captain Lewis Love was one of the original founders of Oregon's Republican Party in 1859. Tragedy struck in 1978 when his beloved youngest child, Margaret Anne (Peggy) Love, died accidentally. Although his grief was with him to the end, he relished his role as husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. He will be missed by his wife Julia; daughter, Cathleen Malcomb of Owings Mills, Md., and her two children, Nadine and David; son Lloyd William of Portland, and his wife, Lourdes and daughters Julia, Elisabeth, Rebecca and Rachel; and son Thomas Frederick of Durham, and his wife Penny and sons Nathan and Benjamin; three great-grandchildren; brother, Daniel L. Love and family of Lake Oswego; as well as numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. The memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 3, 2007, at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1624 NE Hancock St., Portland. Donations to Meals on Wheels are suggested.