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William “Bill” Morris
Obituary
Bill was born on August 31, 1927 to Irvin and Helen Morris in Sellwood, Oregon. Bill spent his childhood in Oregon City. He attended 1st thru 5th grade at Gladstone Elementary. He attended Mt Pleasant Elementary for the 6th grade. At the age of 14 he began working with his father learning how to work on cars. He attended Oregon City High School until he was 17 years old. At 17 years old he joined the US Coast Guard and served in WWII on the destroyer escort USS Sellstrom as a mac hinist and gunner off the coast of China. Bill also cooked for the crew when the main cook was in no condition to report for duty.
On May 9, 1946 he was discharged from the Coast Guard and returned to work with his father as a mechanic for a short time. Bill then traveled to Canada with a friend and spent a year as a head mechanic at a local garage. He then drove truck on various construction sites, including Detroit Dam and he hauled lumber up and down Hwy 101 between Oregon and California. He basically drove truck until 1961.
In 1951 he met and married Ardella Berreth and they had two children, Sandra and Scott. He was a long haul truck driver until after Scott was born. He drove a milk delivery truck for Hazelwood Dairy. In 1962 he started working for his father-in-law Ted Berreth in his TV Repair Shop and purchased the business in 1966. In 1974 he started painting houses and doing construction and then worked for Precision Roof Trusses. He was so proud that he built a truss manufacturing, hydraulic table that saved Precision thousands of dollars. I understand they are still using that piece of machinery today, 35 years later. He semi retired in 1985 and enjoyed some light construction and house painting until Ardella retired in 1994.
He was a longstanding member of the Oregon City Elks Club since 1956.
His passions included fixing things. Bill could fix anything. He loved to cook and grew a lot of his own spices, including garlic and just got through planting a bay leaf tree. He enjoyed teaching the great grand-children how to cook special dishes. Kaitelen now makes Grandpa’s Mac and cheese twice a week. Tim’s wife, Jeannie now knows how to make hot garlic pickles. He mostly loved and enjoyed being with his wife Ardella,
his best friend. They spent most of their time together running
errands, working in the yard and going out to lunch and dinner.
Lately they enjoyed British Murder Mysteries, major league baseball
and of course “Dancing with the Stars.”
He really enjoyed
his computer. He searched cooking websites for new recipes. Bill
loved corresponding with family and friends, always sending tons of
emails.
He had a treasure
chest full of trucking stories. He loved genealogy, family BBQ’s. He
was well known by countless Oregon City-ites.
Bills dad, Irvin, new every business man in Oregon City and Bill would meet these men working for his dad and they would say, “Oh your Irvin’s son!” And these relationship Bill never forgot. He knew every cop, judge, restaurant worker, business owner by name in Oregon City. We were all amazed that he could recall names, relationships, houses, who lived in them and so much more. He was a real Oregon City history buff. One of his favorite meals was Mongolian Beef (Chinese Food). He liked many other foods as long as it was cooked to his liking. He was real “picky” concerning his food and spices. He was a great cook!
Bill had so many stories concerning his younger years. As a kid he and a friend made a go-kart out of an apple crate and raced up and down Linn Avenue. We remember him telling us how he took a car hood and slid down 15th Street in the snow. Knowing the chief of police and the judge in town came in very handy for Bill in his younger years!
1992 Bill almost left us. They discovered an aneurysm after it had burst and it was a miracle that he survived. The doctors called him Lazarus because they brought him back from death twice. What a great gift that was for our family. It allowed us 20 more years of having Bill with us.
In 2004 he had another aneurysm preventative surgery that was successful. We remember the nurse having trouble putting a medical device on him and he asked her if he could see it. He figured it out and showed her how to use it and she was amazed. She asked him what he did for a living, thinking that he was an engineer or designer and she was surprised when he said he was a “handyman”!
For many years Bill and Ardella enjoyed traveling and their beach house. They had the beach house for 30 years. Our family always enjoyed meeting them and spending holiday’s and summer weekends with them. They were great memories.
Bill is survived by his wife of 60 years, Ardella, from Oregon City, his daughter Sandy (Eurich) Morris and her husband Leonard from Welches, his son Scott Morris and his wife Kathleen from West Linn and six grandchildren; Brian Eurich, Tami (Eurich) Millay and her husband Tony, Melissa (Morris) Mills and her husband Jeshua, Michael Morris, Timothy Eurich and his wife Jeannie, Matthew Morris and thirteen great-grandchildren; Kaitelen, Jedidiah, Levi, Yasmine, Nickos, Joshua, Zoe, Ava, Violet, Jaxon, Samuel and the new great grandbaby coming in June.
Bill quickly entered the presence of the Lord on Sunday evening after enjoying a weekend with the entire family. We laughed, ate, heard more stories and enjoyed each other to the fullest. God truly blessed us by allowing us to have those very special moments with Bill before he went home to be with Jesus! |