Dear friends,
The past month has been a time of wonderful blessings and somber moments. We would like to share the wonderful blessings but are too pressed at this moment. We will share those with you soon.
At this moment we need simply to share with you that on May 8th a great Christian man, hero and father passed from this life to the next.
Perhaps this best way to share this news with you is to share what the family wrote for dad’s obituary.
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Olof Carl Carpenter (March 28th, 1920 – May 8th, 2013)
Olof has gone to be with his Savior and Lord. He passed away on May 8, 2013 at the Farmington Square Care Facility, Salem, Oregon, of natural causes. Olof was born on a ranch near Ruckles, Oregon, which was just a post office, south of Roseburg. Olof was the only child of Charles and Olga Carpenter.
During his early years, Olof’s family moved through southern Oregon and Northern California where his father was a timber faller. They settled in Keno Oregon, and later, when Olof was 12, they moved to a ranch between Selma and Kerby, Oregon. With the depression hitting, he and his folks moved to the wilderness area in the mountains between Yreka and Ureka, California. Here his family and an uncle’s family mined for gold. It was here he had the job of providing meat for the mining camp, and was to secure two deer per month to help feed the camp. Going out to Klamath Falls to shop only twice a year, they very much lived off the land. He was very comfortable with his hands, whether hunting or fishing, logging, farming or building houses.
After Pearl Harbor, Olof joined the Marines and spent 33 months in the South Pacific in numerouscombat theaters. He was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious action at Iwo Jima. He returned to Oregon after the war and married Lois Ray Loosley of Fort Klamath, Oregon. In the mid 50’s he attended Northwest Christian College in Eugene to complete a degree in pastoral ministry. He served Christian Churches in Snohomish, WA; Culver, OR and Ashland, OR. After retiring from the ministry, he and Lois traveled to Kenya to serve in a water-well drilling ministry for tribes in the Rift Valley.
Returning to Culver, which had long been labeled “home”, they lived their retirement years, going to Arizona for the winter, and traveled to many world areas. Olof had a deep love and respect for the VFW wherever he lived.
For the past nine years, home was Turner, Oregon. Olof is survived by his wife Lois, and children Russ (Pam), Bruce (Beth), Linda (Mike), Steve (Kay) and Scott (Stephanie) and twelve grand and six great grandchildren.
A family grave side service will be held in June at the family reunion in Fort Klamath, Oregon. A memorial service honoring Olof’s life will be held on June 24 at 2PM at the Turner Christian Church.
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In closing we would request prayers for Mom and all the family. We will be travelling to Oregon later in June to participate in the family reunion and in the celebration of dad’s life. As in his life, so also in his death we would praise the Lord for He is good and gracious and worthy of all praise. Amen.