John Frederick Pound, 80, died April 5, 2007, at his home in Baker City.
His graveside service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 21, at the Olney Cemetery near Pendleton. The rosary will be said and Latin Mass will be celebrated at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 21, at St. Helens Catholic Church in Pilot Rock.
He was born on Sept. 23, 1926, at Pendleton to Theodore Otto Pound and Esther Wiggert Pound. John was raised at Umatilla, where his father worked for the Union Pacific Railroad and his mother was a nurse.
He joined the U.S. Army during World War II and was very proud of his military service in the 82nd Airborne Division.
He grew up loving horses and rode in the Pendleton Round-Up and was a member of the Portland Mounted Posse in the early 1950s. His passion for horses, and especially Arabians, stayed with him his entire life.
John owned his own truck and hauled produce for Paffile Bros. out of Lewiston, Idaho, until he sold the truck and went to work operating heavy equipment.
He married Beverly Thames in 1955 and moved to Southern California in 1960 where they reared six children and began J.F. Pound & Sons, a heavy equipment and road building construction company.
After his second divorce, John returned to upland California, in the mid-1980s, and began operating J.F. Pound & Sons with his son, Brian Pound. He was frequently seen with his dog, Rudy, by his side as he ran his road grader.
John enjoyed music and played trumpet and banjo. His love was building exact scale live-steam models of Union Pacific Railroad cars. His pride was his one-eighth scale working model of a FEF-800 Union Pacific tender.
He began work on the engine, but health challenges prevented him from completing it. In the early 1990s, after heath problems developed, he moved back to Oregon, where he had lived until his death.
Survivors include three sisters, Blanche Kemp of Pendleton, Ellen Wright of Bend, and Yvonne Day of Pilot Rock; six children, Constance “Connie” Lewis of Haines, Brian Pound of Portland, John T. Pound of Pendleton, Catherine “Cathy” Boyd of Baker City, Jason Pound of Portland, and Roberta Stehle of Haines; 12 grandchildren, Sarah Relka, Angela Neihaus, Nicole Boyd, Justin and Anthony Cutshall, Brandon, Kayla, Curtis and Christine Stehle, and Christopher, Johnny and Cody Pound; six great-grandchildren; and his faithful companion and dog, Jake.
Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, April 11, 2007
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor