Neal Lamar Shively, age 95, passed away on May 20, 2019 in Mercer Island, Washington surrounded by his family. Neal was born June 5, 1923 in Dallas, Oregon, to Frieda Pearl Neal and Laverde Leslie Shively, Sr, the fifth of six children. His ancestors are recorded crossing the Oregon Trail in the 1850’s.
Growing up in Willamina, Oregon, Neal helped his dad with logging, harvesting hops, and tending the dairy cows. He developed a love for nature and a passion for fishing and hunting. At 16, he graduated from high school as Valedictorian. He later went to a Native American school to learn sheet metal skills and then moved to Portland OR to work at Columbia Aircraft. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and trained to be a gunner and flight engineer on the B-29 bomber with the 20th AirForce , flying over 30 missions from Saipan. He attended OSU in Corvalis, Oregon where he earned a degree in Industrial Engineering. Here, his best friend, Tom Slayton, said his wife Frances had a cute twin sister. Neal met and soon married Florence Mary Marshall Hanny on Friday the 13th of June, 1947: resulted in a lucky 71 years.
The couple moved to Seattle in 1949 when he got a job with the Boeing Airplane Company as a manager of an engineering group developing new programs and experimenting with army aircraft and missiles and was later involved with the NASA Apollo moon landing program in Houston as head of Contracts Organization for 3 years. Neal will be remembered as a devoted husband and steadfast father of 4 children, a truly gracious gentleman.
He is preceded in death by his parents, 4 siblings, and his daughter, Anita Kalantari.
Neal is survived by his wife Florence, daughters, Cynthia McWilliams and husband Lawrence, Frances Ramon and husband Victor; son, Neal Shively, Jr.; son-in-law Bijan Kalantari, and sister, Louise Peterson; his grandchildren, Sarah McWilliams; Marisa, Victor, and Stephen Ramon; Rachael Knodel and husband Nate, Natalie Shively, Lauren Fisher and husband Jared; Sheri Williams; and great grandchildren, Isabel, Jackson, and Beckett Knodel, and Maddox Fisher.
A service was held at Sunset Hills Funeral Home, Bellevue, and Neal was laid to rest at Sunset Hills Memorial Park.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.9.5