Elgin, Oregon
Bradley Dean Wilson, 58, of Elgin died Jan. 4 at St. Mary Medical Center in Walla Walla, Wash., after a year-long battle with cancer. A funeral service is planned for noon Saturday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Elgin. A viewing will be available from 8 to 10 a.m. that morning at the Loveland Funeral Chapel in La Grande. Burial will be at the Summerville Cemetery immediately following the services.
Mr. Wilson was born Sept. 8, 1948, in Albany to Marion W. and Berna Clara Wilson and was educated in Albany and Portland.
After high school he attended a heavy-equipment operators school in Weiser, Idaho, followed by millwright school at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton. He retired in September after nearly 30 years as a millwright at the Elgin stud mill.
Mr. Wilson spent many years hunting, fishing and black-powder shooting in the Grande Ronde Valley and the Blue Mountains. Known as “Pathfinder,” he was a reserved man who taught himself to tan hides, sew and bead his mountain-man clothes and create all of the regalia needed for a frontier woodsman. He read extensively on history and native wildlife.
He and his wife, Carol, a schoolteacher in Boardman, were married Nov. 7, 1998, at the LDS Church in Boardman. They enjoyed halibut fishing in Alaska, spending time with their grandchildren, camping, reading and especially riding Mr. Wilson’s Harley, taking annual excursions to places such as Canada, Sturgis, S.D., Crater Lake and northern Idaho.
Survivors include his wife, father and a brother, Byron; children and their spouses, Dawn K. Cunningham of Imbler and Dean W. and Anna Wilson of Albany; two grandsons; many nieces and nephews; first wife, Kathy Wilson of Elgin; stepchildren and their spouses, Gary W. Oswald of Santa Fe, N.M., Samuel W. Oswald of Beaverton, Frederick M. and Kim Oswald of Tacoma, Wash., and Loura A.M. Oswald of Beaverton; and five step-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his mother and a young grandson, Keagan Wilson.
The Observer – Obituaries for the week ending Jan. 13, 2006, Published: January 13, 2007