Elbert Stone

Al Stone,89, passed peacefully away from this life in the early hours of Thursday, August 2nd. This month marks his 45th year residing in Corvallis. He was born on his family's farm in Boone County, Missouri, but in 1929 moved to the city of Columbia where he still has many nieces and nephews. He was born the eighth of ten wonderful siblings, and is survived by one younger brother. His father was Thomas Henry Stone III, his mother Linnie Frances (Pollock). She too lived just short of her 90th birthday, but Al was left fatherless at the age of 7 when double pneumonia claimed his dad. The kids all got out and worked; Al had his first job caddying on the golf courses in Columbia when he was 8 and his co-worker brother was10. He had paper and milk routes, worked at the A&P, and enlisted in the army when his friends went in. "Go with your friends," he always said. After training for a year he went as an artillery corporal into Patton's Third Army, getting another stripe on the way. He called his experience the best in 'a world full of war theaters' until he was transferred to the infantry for the Ardennes Campaign (the Bulge), which lasted 11 months. On VE Day he was safe in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia. He returned to attend Univ. of Missouri but was lured West by the promise of jobs and a California climate. He met his future wife Florence Moreci working in San Francisco. They married in 1952, spent fifteen happy years raising their son Jack and daughter Mary before deciding to move to Oregon. This involved a change of career, as Al had been 16 years in sales and PR in the city for Bearing Engineering Co. Their easy suburban life was changing into Silicon Valley too fast for comfort. Al decided to buy into a growing retail business, Corvallis' Christian Supply Store. In 1967 you could fly in to the Corvallis Airport, stay in the Benton Hotel, and enthusiastically recommend this university town of 23,000 whose features were beginning to show recovery from the Columbus Day Storm and a slow Oregon economy. Thirteen years in the book business was Al's favorite time of life. He and Florence and their kids all worked there. His son and daughter-in-law bought the business when Al retired at 59, and he found Corvallis life very full among his friends and church work. After 56 years of marriage, he lost Florence to ALS. He is best remembered as the Adult Class teacher of Northwest Hills Church and of the Evangelical Church of Corvallis, but he was a faithful Thursday night counselor to the Halfway House on Ninth and Harrison Blvd for seven years. Having lost his dad so young he loved to hear the stories of 15 to 17 year old boys who were having a rough time. Al encouraged them to pull their lives together. Al was a favorite to young and old; he is survived by his son Jack, daughter Mary, their spouses, five grandchildren and their two spouses, and four great-grandchildren; all in Oregon. Memorial donations in Al’s name may be directed to the Gideons at McHenry Funeral Home 206 NW 5th St., Corvallis, Oregon 97330. A graveside service is set for 10:30 am Wednesday, August 8th at Twin Oaks Memorial Gardens in Albany followed by a memorial service at 2:00 pm at the Corvallis Evangelical Church. Pastor Ron Johnson and Pastor Dennis Kizziar will officiate.

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Elbert Stone

November 16, 1922 - August 2, 2012