Aug. 21, 1911 – Aug. 3, 2013
Alfred Franklin Finnell, 101, of Sweet Home died Aug. 3, 2013.
He was born Aug. 21, 1911 in Nashville, Ark. to James Desmore and Ella (Short) Finnell.
As the child of a saw filer, he traveled with his family across the United States, also spending time in Nicaragua and Mexico. The family settled in the Portland area where he attended and graduated from Beaverton High School. Believing in higher education, he attended Oregon Normal School and Oregon State University.
Teaching high school for two years in Dundee, and serving as a school principal/basketball coach in Vida, Wash. convinced Mr. Finnell that he had no interest in the politics involved with public education, nor the low-paying salary. He went back into the field that flowed through his veins, becoming a master saw filer in the Pacific Northwest.
He met and married Floretta Ruth Mundale in Vader, Wash. They were married for 65 years at the time of her death. They have three children, 10 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and 22 great-great-grandchildren.
The Finnells were loved by countless family and friends.
Mr. Finnell filed saws in Ketchikan, Alaska; Lebanon, Oregon; Entiat, Ardenvoi, and Oroville, Wash. Retiring at age 75, he lived an additional 38 years of leisure, enjoying family, friends, gardening, traveling and napping. At age 91, he moved to Craig, Alaska with his granddaughter and family. All of the teenagers knew him simply as “Alfred.”
At age 95, Mr. Finnell moved back to Sweet Home to live with his son and extended family. He had lost the sight in one eye, his hearing was limited at best, but he was healthy as a horse and retained all of his faculties until the very end. He died peacefully in his sleep, 18 days short of his 102nd birthday.
Funeral services were held Aug. 10 at Sweet Home Funeral Chapel, with burial Aug. 12 at Riverview Cemetery in Oroville, Wash.
Sweet Home Funeral Chapel is handling the arrangements.