Obituary: Van Winkle, Alfred
He was born in Arlington, Oregon in 1917, the second of six children born to William C. and Cleo Eskelson Van Winkle.
In 1925 he moved with his parents to a wheat ranch near Lexington, Oregon where he grew up and attended school in a one room school house at Social Ridge and high school at Lexington.
He graduated from Oregon State University with degrees in Agriculture Economics.
He married Cecilia Nordstrom in 1943.
Mr. Van Winkle served in the Pacific Theater of operations with the 77th Infantry Division during World War II and was engaged in combat landing operations on Guam, Southern Philippines, and Okinawa.
In 1949 after completing graduate work at Oregon State University Mr. Van Winkle moved to Spokane where he was employed by The Spokane Bank for Cooperatives until his retirement from that bank in 1982.
After retirement, Mr. Van Winkle, with his wife Cecilia, continued to work with agricultural cooperatives in developing countries as a volunteer consultant in Central America, Africa and the Philippines.
In 1987 he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Farm Credit Banks of Spokane and was a member of the initial Board of Directors of CoBank (National Bank for Cooperatives) when it was founded in 1989.
He retired from his position on that board in 1994.
Family Reflections… Dad said, “The best thing I ever did was marry Cecilia.”
His wife of 70 years, Cecilia, died in 2013.
Together they had six children: Susan (Jim), Christine, Phyllis, Rose Mary, Janice (Mark), and Mark (Barbara).
Family and outdoor activities were important with vacations spent camping, touring National Parks, and fishing from his boat “The Fish Finder”.
A ranching background and degrees in agriculture were put to use in his highly productive garden.
We all greatly admired Dad’s ability to repair things.
He was also able to recite from memory hundreds of poems learned in that one room school house.
Dad had a great respect for knowledge, a sharp wit, and a mastery of language.
He said, “Early on I set my moral compass and have followed it my entire life.”
And follow it, he did!
In addition to his children he is survived by: his sister June DuVall; thirteen grandchildren: Celena, Matthew, Jacob, Natalie (Susan); Paul, Katherine, Brian (Christine); Kynlan, Logan, Emily (Rose Mary); Tania, Charles, Andrew (Mark).
He also leaves six great-grandchildren: Lillian, Connor, Elliott, Hadley, Josephine and Orwell.
Memorial services will be held on January 20, 2015 at 11 AM at St. Charles Catholic Church at 4515 N. Alberta, Spokane, Washington 99205.