OBIT: William C. ECKERT, 2005, native of Blair County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Sharon Miller Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/ _________________________________________ WILLIAM "BILL" C. ECKERT William "Bill" C. Eckert died Thursday, June 16th of Mesothelioma (cancer caused by asbestos) in his home in Salem, Oregon. Bill was born April 2, 1939 to William F. and Marian (Probst) Eckert in Tyrone, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Tyrone High School in 1957, he joined the Navy serving on the USS Lookout and the USS Protector. He became a Navy reservist in 1962 and started college at the University of Montana, where he met his future wife. He graduated from Penn State University in 1965, where he studied wood products and forestry. He was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1968. On November 30th, 1968 Bill married his love, Dawn Drummond in Missoula, Montana. He started his career with Borden Chemical Company in New York and transferred to Oregon in 1970. He was also employed by Willamette Industries and Georgia Pacific Chemical before retiring in July of 2003. Bill enjoyed gardening, the outdoors, woodworking, and cooking. He also loved vacationing in Montana and Pennsylvania. He loved people and it showed by his service with Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity, the Oregon Garden Gordon House, and Morningside United Methodist Church. Bill will be remembered as a loving, caring, humorous, hard- working man who kept his faith to the end. While he was receiving treatment for his cancer he would always try to lift the spirits of the other patients around him. Bill was preceded in death by his parents, baby boy, and brother, Rodney Eckert. Bill is survived by Dawn, his wife of 37 years; his brother Bob (Doree) Eckert of Valparaiso, IN; his sister Edna Marie Wisyanski of Bristol, CT; his sister-in-law Linda Eckert of Peoria, AZ; his daughter Betsy (Tom) Warren of Attleboro, MA; his daughter Lara Eckert of Salem, OR; his son Keith (Kelly) Eckert of Bothell, WA; and nieces and nephews. Memorial services were held at Morningside United Methodist Church at 3674 12th St SE in Salem at 2:00 PM on Tuesday, June 21st. Tyrone Daily Herald, June 24, 2005