A memorial service was held at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 2, 2007, at Sandy Funeral Home, Sandy, Ore. for Claud Edward Wilcox who died May 21 at Mt. Hood Medical center of pneumonia, a complication of Alzheimer’s.

Claud was born March 31, 1915 in Ione, Ore. He graduated from high school in Lexington, Ore. in 1933.

He married Elsie ‘Irene’ Kennings in Hermiston, Ore., Dec. 26, 1937. They were married for 69 years.

They worked together the first two years of their marriage, Irene as a movie house ticket seller and Claud as projectionist, traveling around to different movie houses in Eastern Oregon. Claud trained as a machinist in Ione with the encouragement from his father. The couple then moved to Portland in 1941, where Claud went to work at Iron Fireman, becoming a machinist foreman.

In 1945 he bought and ran a gas station in Troutdale, Ore. where Claud had his first machine shop and also raised cattle and farmed.

The moved to Orient, Ore. in 1953, where Claud later built and owned his machine shop business, Precision Products at Stone and Boring Road. He retired in 1979 when they moved to Deer Harbor on Orcas Island, Wash. He built a beautiful home there using Oregon myrtle for the woodwork and cabinet doors. They moved back to Gresham in 1994.

Claud’s hobbies were gardening, woodworking, inventing, fishing, hunting and homebuilding.

Anyone who knew Claud knows that there is a special machine and wood shop waiting for him in heaven, where he will continue to do what he did best — build, design, invent and create.

Claud was preceded in death by his parents; two brothers, Charles and Lester and one sister, Eva Broston; grandson, Christopher Van Schoiack; son-in-law, Ron Littlepage, and grandson-in-law, Dave Matthew.

Survivors include his wife, Irene; daughter Karen Van Schoiack (Mike), Bellevue, Wash.; daughter Susan Littlepage Karbo (Ken), Boring, Ore.; and daughter, Joni Leaf, Klamath Falls, Ore.; three grandchildren, Heather Van Schoiack (Mark), Kim Matthew Wallace (Matt), Tim Littlepage (Wendy); and three great grandchildren, Ronnie and Aaron Littlepage and Kaley Wallace; 1 sister, Doris Graves, Heppner, Ore.; and 1 brother, Glen of Portland, Ore.

The family wants to extend many thanks to Cornerstone Option Care Center and Mt. Hood Medical Center fourth floor nurses for the care and compassion they gave to dad and our family.