Gerald Loren Brower

Family and friends are missing special and loving Gerald Loren Brower, who died August 6, 2010. Jerry was born July 8th, 1918 in Milton, Oregon, the second son of four children born to Claude and Margaret Brower. The family moved to a farm near Rickreal, Oregon where Jerry entered first grade. Then he was met with several hardships. His mother died when he was seven, and his first step-mother also died at a very young age, then came some lonely days and operations at Portland Children’s Hospital that saved his right arm after an earlier childhood accident. A move to DEE, a company logging town, was an exciting change that offered hiking on nearby Mt. Hood, lakes, streams and rivers to fish and slopes for skiing. Jerry loved his football years playing on a winning Hood River High team and serving as president of his senior class. Jerry majored in Civil Engineering at Oregon State College and served as a dorm officer and president of the Independent Student Council. He traded a dorm dance with Doris Pingel, quickly proposed and they were married May 29th, 1942. They honeymooned on the Oregon Coast on the way to an engineering position with the Boeing Company in Seattle. Two daughters, Claudia and Lynette, completed a happy foursome who camped, snow and water skied and hiked together. Jerry enjoyed his creative and travel-filled Boeing career that lasted 39 years. He retired in 1981 as Chief Project Engineer in the commercial division. Retirement years were very special as he and Doris rebuilt an abandoned waterfront home on Mats Mats Bay, traveled cross country in an RV, trips abroad and finding a second home in Green Valley, Arizona. “Taco Bell” included membership in a large community wood working shop where he enjoyed hours building furniture and bowls when he wasn’t mountain climbing or hiking to abandoned historical sites. Jerry and Doris’ last move was to Canyon Lakes retirement complex in Kennewick, Washington; thirty miles from Lynette and Bill’s Topcliff Farm in Prosser. Jerry had much pleasure joining in work at their apple and cherry orchard. He is survived by Doris, his wife of 68 years and their daughters and families: Claudia and Dr. Ben Brown and their son, Keith. Lynette and Bill Howell and their children, Andrea, Kimberly, Erika, Brock and Bryn; great-grandchildren Owen, Allison, Lily and Michael. Preceding him in death were his parents, Claude and Margaret Brower, sisters Marjorie West and Lorraine Presler, brothers Harold Brower and Dr. Stanley Callas, and his beloved second step-mother, Alice Brower. A family memorial will be held in McMinnville, Oregon, destination of his Brower grandparents, who with two small children arrived, by covered wagon. Memorials will be appreciated to Oregon State University, Department of Engineering, Corvallis, OR 97331 or Neurological Association NW Chapter (Research), 910 W. 5th, Suite 256, Spokane, WA 99204.