
Obituaries

Date Published to Web: 12/7/2003

PAID OBITUARY
CARL HOWARD STINSON
Carl Howard Stinson, 82, of Sonoma, Calif., and former resident of Alderwood died Monday, Sept. 29, 2003, with his son, Mark and daughter, Christy at his side.
Howard was born Aug. 29, 1921, at home in Alderwood, to Carl Elias Stinson and Cynthia Graham Stinson. His mother died when he was five-years-old leaving his father, an immigrant Swedish farmer, with two step-sons, a daughter, Dora Christine, and another son, Stanley, to care for. Howard worked hard on the farm from an early age and at one point was in charge of the cooking for the family and said he never wanted to cook again. Yet, he took it up again, when his wife of 57 years developed Alzheimers disease.
Howard attended Alderwood High School during the Depression. It was there that he met Della Joy Matthew, who would later become his wife. Hard work was a constant element of his life and his personal motto printed in the 1939 yearbook summed up his restlessness and belief in his own abilities that defined him for the rest of his life. If I could get out of here, I could get something done.
An intelligent man with a photographic memory, Howard attended Washington State University studying engineering, but at the outbreak of WWII, he worked in the shipyards in Seattle before taking exams for the Army Air Corps. Commissioned as an officer, Howard piloted A-26 bombers over Germany, flying out of England and later France. At the end of the war he ferried planes back to the United States via Africa and South America.
Howards engineers mind served him well when he started his own construction company after the war using army surplus for equipment. He was active in the Junior Chamber of Commerce in Alderwood, as was honored as Man of the Year in the early 1950s. He moved his family to Kingston and later The Dalles, Ore., where he became a successful business owner along with his brother, Stanley, operating Interstate Paving Company. He was the past president of Oregon Asphalt Paving Association, a member of the Jaycees, The Dalles Elks Club and The Dalles Country Club. Retiring from paving, Howard and Della developed the Pomona Mobile Home Park in The Dalles.
Howard always loved the newest toy. He started his collection with army surplus airplanes, motorcycles and boats. He always had his own small plane, and also owned and flew a helicopter and in his 70s, an ultra-light. As a pilot he also loved to travel, enjoying trips to Asia, Europe and Egypt with his wife.
Impatience was always with him and when age, diabetes and arthritis caught up with him he seemed truly surprised that he couldnt do everything he had once done.
He is survived by his wife, Della Joy Matthew Stinson, son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Celia Stinson, daughter and son-in-law, Christy and John Coulston, all of Sonoma, Calif., daughter and son-in-law, Cindy Stinson-Chennell and Chris Chennell of McMinnville, Ore., daughter, Jane Stinson of Anchorage, Alaska; sister, Dora Christine Martinez of Richland; and brother, Stanley Stinson of The Dalles; along with grandchildren, Jessica and Andrew Stinson, Mildred and Libby Chennell and Kyle and Corey Madden.
No funeral services were held at the deceaseds request however the family met at the Oregon Coast in a celebration of Howards life and to spread his ashes over an area he particularly loved.









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