My Grandpa (William “Bill” Lewis Correll) passed away on September 25. He was 100. He lived a full life but we will miss him. Glad he’s enjoying Heaven now with our Lord (and Grandma).
I put together this slide show for his Memorial Service.
Here’s a copy of the shortened obituary from the program:
Bill’s Story
Bill was born May 11, 1908 on a farm in Orleans, Nebraska to Edward and Carrie Correll. Bill was the eighth of eleven children. His early years were spent on farms in Nebraska and Kansas. Bill graduated from Garden County High School in Oshkosh, NE in 1926. In 1927 he moved to Montana to farm with an older brother Sam. It was there that he met and married the love of his life Margie Boice in 1930.
In 1932 severe drought and the Great Depression forced Bill and Margie to leave farming and Montana to seek employment in Washington State. They settled in Ellensburg where Bill became a radiator repairman/mechanic and auto parts man at Heinrich Auto Electric and later Butterfield Chevrolet.
While Bill and Margie were living in Ellensburg they both came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and became active in His service.
When the US entered WWII in 1941 Bill went to work for the Boeing Company in Renton where he was a foreman of millwrights.
When the war ended Bill and Margie moved to Ephrata and started Correll Radiator Service which eventually developed into Sun City Auto Supply.
Bill and Margie helped to start the Ephrata First Baptist Church in 1947 and continued a very active involvement in the Lord’s work there for the rest of their lives.
Bill retired from selling auto parts in 1975. Later he went back to work part time as a farm hand for Murray Van Dyke of Quincy. Bill loved being back in farming after a 60 year absence and enjoyed working for Murray for several years before fully retiring in his 80’s.
Over the years Bill enjoyed many hobbies including photography, fishing, painting, woodworking, giant walnut propagation, reading, watching the Mariners, and eventually maintaining a weekly blog on the Internet.
He wrote a couple of books and received two patents, one for a radiator funnel in the 1950’s, and another for a folding saw horse in the 1970’s.
Bill was preceded in death in 2002 by Margie, his beloved wife of 72 years. He is survived by one brother Ivan Correll of North Ca
rolina, a sister-in-law and brother-in-law Maxine and Gerald French of Ellensburg, a brother-in-law Clifford Boice of California, a daughter Doris Matlock of Soap Lake, a son and daughter-in-law Gary and Karen Correll of Nine Mile Falls, WA, a daughter and son-in-law Sue and Paul Barton of Portland, OR, and a son and daughter-in-law Bill and Debbie Correll of Ephrata. Bill also leaves 13 grand children, 24.2 great grandchildren, numerous nieces and nephews, his church family, and many friends.
I love my Grandpa, and am very fortunate to have such an awesome Christian heritage. Here’s a fun shot with ML and Grandpa from this last summer.
I posted all the pics from the slideshow here.
Oh and if you didn’t gather it, I’m the .2 for great grandchildren.
Tammie, you did such a excellent job putting the slide show together for Grandpa’s memorial. What a great family we share. I know that you know, but your readers may not that the .2 in the above mentioned 24.2 great grandchildren refers to a certain special someone grandpa knew was coming next spring to the Springs.
That is an amazing and very touching tribute to Grandpa Bill, Tammy! I am so blessed to have married into this wonderful family (to Diana, his first granddaughter), and count it a privilege to have known Grandpa Bill (and your dad, too) for the last 38 years. Congrats on your eagerly expected little one to come, adding to the long list of great-grandchildren!
Thank you so much for the DVD of Dad! It captured the essence of him in his life and family so beautifully, and the music added a wonderful dimension to the presentation. I am so thankful for Dad and Mom. They were so full of love for Jesus, each other, and all of us. Thank you, God, for my Dad.
100yrs is pretty amazing, worth commenting about. My students have benefited from being challenged to think back a hundred years into the past and research what was going on - most have trouble and at the minimum it turns into a great historical learning lesson and discussion. :)
It was an honor getting to know Bill, like my own amazing Grandfathers, I find them to be an amazing resource and wealth of knowledge in life. We would do well to listen to the wisdom of the elderly, gleen some valuable lessons that might very much still apply for us today.
I find it fascinating thinking of all of this in a very practical way from the perspective of, Bill (as well as my Grandparents) raising their children with a certain amount of knowledge, values, faith, skills, and abilities that they had acquired, and passing it on. My wife benefited from these very things being passed down to her via her parents and now I’m benefiting from these things through marriage. In all of this I see another evidence of the power of God’s wisdom at work. I see how He gives good gifts to his children, how he equips them with the information, knowledge and skills they need to know in life. And how He reveals Himself to us even more through the legacy of His faithful followers. Praise be to Jesus through the life/legacy that Bill lived for Him. AMEN!