Obituaries for Sept. 21, 2009

Donald Cody

Donald Leslie Cody, 82, of Baker City, died Sept. 16, 2009, at his home.

His graveside memorial service will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Mount Hope Cemetery. Pastor John Goodyear of Baker Valley Church of Christ will officiate. Afterward, friends are invited to join the family for a Celebration of Life luncheon at the Elks Lodge, No. 338, 1896 Second St.

Donald Cody was born on Feb. 26, 1927, at Los Angeles to Ida Goff and Robert Cody. His birthday was the same day as Buffalo Bill Cody, with whom he had quite a resemblance. He was a third cousin to Buffalo Bill.

Donald worked on a ranch driving a team of horses and working in the bean fields beginning at the age of 12 through his early teens. He worked on the power lines for the Hungry Horse Dam in Montana and spent 11 years in the Coast Guard. He retired from A.B.F. Trucking after 30 years driving with 3 million safe driving miles and no accidents.

He married Pat Fogerty and they had five children together, Marlene, Jody, Donald, Sheila and Cristi. He was a very devoted father and enjoyed his family. Pat died in May, 1985. They had 35 good years together.

Don joined the Lakewood Masonic Lodge No. 728 in 1972 and was a very active member. Then he joined the Eastern Star and was quite active in that also. He also joined the Scottish Rite, York Rite and the Shriners. He enjoyed riding motorcycles. He always rode a Harley-Davidson because he liked the sound of the Harley.

After retiring, he bought a 37-foot motor home and started traveling. He kept running into a good friend, Bea Reise. They would end up in the same RV park, without knowing the other would be there. In 1991, they started traveling together and they saw a lot of beautiful country and gained a lot of friends. Donald and Bea were married May 7, 1994.

Don enjoyed life. He was very well-liked and always had a story for anyone who would listen, his family members said. He loved telling jokes; some he made up himself. Some were funny, some were corny, but they were always amusing.

“He was one great man,” his family said.

Don was preceded in death by his parents; his first wife, Pat; daughter, Marlene; stepson, Kenneth Reise; and his brother, Robert Cody.

Survivors include his wife of 15 years, Bea; his children: Jody Jefferies, Donald Cody, Sheila Minor and Cristi Vega; his stepchildren, Bruce Reise and Ronald Reise; grandchildren, Jon Paul, Holly Ingalls, Ray Day, Bradley Minor, Will Redmond, David Redmond, Trey Vega, David Reise, Stacy Kirk, Cassie Pollack and Jeremy Reise; 10 great-grandchildren; a brother, Gordon Cody; and several nieces and nephews.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Shriners Children’s Hospital or Heart ‘n’ Home Hospice through Coles Funeral Home, 1950 Place St., Baker City, OR 97814.

‘Tom’ Schroeder

Richard Tom Schroeder, 63, of Halfway, died Sept. 14, 2009, as a result of a motorcycle accident near Boise.

There will be no service.

He was born on Feb. 4, 1946 in Portland, Ore. to Richard and Susan Dickerson Schroeder. Tom was raised in Portland and attended David Douglas High School, Class of 1964. After high school, Tom enlisted and served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

He married his high school sweetheart, Orene “Toni” Ritter on Feb. 4, 1968. They had two boys, Nathan Matthew and Tom Benjamin. They made their home in the Portland area and Tom retired after 30 years from Safeway where he had worked as a truck driver.

After retirement, Tom and Toni moved to Halfway in 2001.

Tom enjoyed fishing, motorcycling and shooting. Tom loved Halfway and its beautiful valley. He enjoyed and appreciated the kindness of the people of Halfway and all who made him feel so welcome, family members said.

He was preceded in death by his father, Richard Schroeder; sister Melody Dolan; and baby Schroeder.

Survivors include his wife Toni; sons, Nathan, and his wife, Kelly, and Tom and his wife, Debbie, all of Oregon City; grandchildren, Samantha and Lucas; mother, Susan Schroeder of Halfway; sister Sherry Sue and her husband, Steve Sheridan, of Halfway; and several nieces, nephews and cousins.

Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society through Tami’s Pine Valley Funeral Home, P.O. Box 543, Halfway, OR 97834.

'Bob' Forte

Robert “Bob” Forte, 63, of Halfway, died Sept. 10, 2009, at his home.

His life was celebrated Tuesday at his home in Halfway.

Bob was born on Dec. 21, 1945, at Akron, Ohio, to Mary and Tony Forte. He started working with his dad at the machine shop at an early age and continued working for him after school and during the summer all the way through college.

He played basketball throughout high school, college and the army (not to mention the great teams he played with in Pine Valley). After graduating with a master’s degree from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, he was drafted into the U.S. Army.

He was lucky enough to play basketball and volleyball for Fort Campbell.

After his military service, he traveled cross-country and discovered the West. He learned about organic gardening, worked as a professor at Linn-Benton Community College at Albany, and helped run the cooperative demolition-recycle business known as The Other Lumber Company.

Bob first saw Pine Valley in 1978 from the top of Cornucopia. He had backpacked in from the Minam River, and in his exploring made his way to the back side of Cornucopia. As soon as he reached the top of the ridge, he fell in love with the valley and had been in love with it ever since, his family said. As he would explain to anyone who would listen, the place and the community in which he lived were more important to him than what he did as a profession.

He was able to draw on his background in business in order to become a tax man and found a way to make a living in his beloved valley. Though it might be hard for his graduate school professors to recognize their teachings, Bob’s business acumen was part of what he could offer to his tax clients.

One might mistake Bob’s photo albums for a history of the United States 1945 to present. There are photos of a clean-shaven Army man next to images of a long-haired hippie with a bushy beard traveling cross-country in a blue van. The albums include a basketball star, a young boy surrounded by Italian relatives, and a man with a handle bar mustache seated on his easy-rider motorcycle.

The photos also include a young businessman golfing with his professors at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, a recycle boy with a grub hoe, a family man cheering at the ball games, a gardener, and a tax man playing cribbage and selling coffee and Kromer caps.

All of these various characters are Bob. If it has been hard for our country to bridge all these diverse times, you have to wonder how he did it within himself. Yet he seemed to do it with grace and joy and perhaps that was the key — he always saw the common thread between us all, according to his family and friends.

Bob shared his life with his wife, Coco, and three daughters, Cara, Myra, and Lila (and their three foreign exchange students, Jei, Anja and Pia). Whether preparing for Halloween parties, having snowball fights, driving hours to see a ball game, hiking in the Wallowas, swimming in the Snake, camping in Utah, or just hanging out and playing cribbage, he was in the middle of the action.

He loved to watch his children and everybody else’s play sports, which turned him into a rabid Pine-Eagle Spartans fan. He was also a lifelong fan of the Cleveland Browns and the Cleveland Indians, a testament to his great tenacity and outrageous hope.

No portrait of Bob would be complete without describing an extra tall man with an even bigger heart and spirit. He will be missed, his family said.

Survivors include his wife, Coco Forte, and his children, Cara Rose, Myra Rasmussen, and Lila; his sister and brother-in-law, Mary Ann and Louie Sharpless; nieces, Mary Lynn and Diana, and nephew, Don.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Mary and Tony Forte.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Pine Eagle Clinic or Mountain States Tumor Institute through Tami’s Pine Valley Funeral Home, P.O. Box 543, Halfway, OR 97834.