Walter Leo Doede

December 31, 1922 - February 16, 2022

Walter Leo Doede was born on a cold New Year's Eve day to Leo Ernst and Augusta (Guenther) Doede in the township of Cooperstown, Wisconsin. He was their seventh child. He grew up in the village of Denmark (south of Green Bay) with seven siblings. He graduated from Denmark High School in May 1942. In high school, he lettered in basketball, played baseball as the catcher, worked as Chief Carpenter for the Drama Club, and won second place in Oratory as a sophomore in the Conference Forensic contest.

After high school, Walter went out to California where his oldest sister Leona and his oldest brother Ed were living. After registering for the draft in June 1942, Walter worked for the U.S. government at an airplane manufacturing plant in San Luis Obispo until he was called up for military service in January 1943. He returned to Denmark to report to the Army.

After failing the Army eye exam, Walter worked at the submarine manufacturing yards in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on the shores of Lake Michigan. In September 1945 he enrolled at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, but left after a year to join his father Leo and younger brother Lester in Portland, Oregon.

In 1947, on a blind date arranged by his oldest brother Ed, Walter met the love of his life: Marjorie Hansen, an Army Cadet nurse working at the VA Hospital in Portland. They married a year later in Hampton, Nebraska, and moved to White Salmon, Washington. Here Walter worked as a bookkeeper at an auto dealership and Marjorie worked at the Hood River hospital across the Columbia River in Oregon.

In 1950, Walter and Marjorie purchased a house in Aloha, Oregon, and started their family. Their first child, Diane lived only three days. They had three more children: David, Daniel, and Dorothy. Walter had learned how to take loving care of a family from his father Leo, and he remained a dedicated family man his whole life.

After working in bookkeeping jobs in Portland, Walter became the accountant for Sunset Lumber Products Co. in North Plains, Oregon, in 1955. He worked there until his retirement in 1992. In 1964, Walter and Marjorie moved to a new home in the West Hills of Portland overlooking the Tualatin Valley. With the kids all in school, Marjorie eventually returned to nursing until she retired in 1988.

Over time, Walter and Marjorie's family grew to include four grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Walter and Marjorie enjoyed playing with their grandchildren, taking them to the park to feed the geese, picking raspberries in the garden, and sharing the tradition of making and frosting cut-out Christmas cookies.

Walter's relatives could always recognize him by his pipe and his fishing hat; his grandfather Christoph Guenther had smoked a long Meerschaum pipe, wore a hat, and carried a fishing rod. Walter was also known for his laughter and his mischievousness. Once at a family reunion ice breaker, he wrote on his slip of paper that he had not liked turning 40 years old; he was in his seventies at the time. The poor niece who got his slip couldn't find anyone who had recently turned 40.

In between work and his expanding family (and during retirement), Walter found time for his many hobbies and activities. The family often went camping at the beach or near a mountain lake where Walter pursued his love of fishing, which he had inherited from his mother, Gustie, and her father, Christoph. From his mother, he also inherited a love of nature and gardening.

Walter gained a reputation among family and friends for the excellence of his wine, made in the upstairs room closet from the grapes, raspberries, and rhubarb that he grew in his garden. He had a green thumb in raising Christmas cacti, orchids, and geraniums from seed. He baked bread, read westerns, historical novels, and science fiction stories, and ate pumpkin pie as often as possible. He and Marjorie belonged to the Valley Squares, a local square dancing club.

Walter enjoyed woodworking and carpentry. He carved figures and animals, built a handmade cradle for his eldest granddaughter, and fashioned the casing for a grandfather clock. He was also a handyman who could do about anything required to maintain the house and yard.

Walter was an avid fan of both college and professional football, baseball, and basketball games. He rooted for the Wisconsin, Michigan, and Nebraska college teams while remaining a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan and a NY Yankees fan since the war. He never lost his love of basketball, and had several professional teams that he liked to watch.

After retiring, Walter and Marjorie took long trips in the camper to visit relatives in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Nebraska. They continued to camp at the beach or a mountain lake; Walter continued to fish while Marjorie took pictures, wrote letters, and guarded the camp against thieving squirrels. After the death of their beloved Taffy, a longhair Dachshund-Cocker mix (the last in a long line of dogs), they adopted a white kitten, Alice, who went camping with them.

Walter and Marjorie celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary in March 2007, two months before Marjorie passed away in May. In April 2012, five years after Marjorie's passing, Walter sold the house and moved into a condo in the same complex as his daughter Dorothy. He lived out his remaining days there under the care of his daughter. He passed away in his sleep on February 16, 2022, at the age of 99 years, 1 month, and 16 days.

Walter is survived by his three children, two daughter-in-laws, four grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, three sister-in-laws, one brother-in-law and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his wife, his parents, his eight siblings, and a daughter.

Written by Dorothy Doede, March 2022