Edward Oscar Abel, 89
Edward Oscar Abel, 89, passed away July 5, 2007 of a failed heart valve and other complications.
Eddy began life in Manitowoc, Wis., in 1918, son of Oscar and Ada Abel. He attended Concordia High School and Concordia College. Ed's college career was cut short when his father died in 1938 and he had to take a job as a draftsman and machinist for Milwaukee Gas Specialty Company to help support his mother and sister.
In October 1942, Ed married Lucille Ketter of Milwaukee, just days before entering officer training school at Fort Belvoire, Md., where he became a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. During World War II, Ed was stationed in the Philippine Islands, where he built roads and bridges behind the infantry as they fought the Japanese. After the end of the war, he and his unit occupied Japan for one year.
Having achieved the rank of captain, Ed returned home from the war in 1946 and resumed work with Milwaukee Gas Specialty Company, where he was promoted into technical sales and marketing. During the late '40s and '50s, three children were born to Ed and Lucille: Tom, Jenny, and Lynn. Ed's passion was fishing the lakes of northern Wisconsin, which he did whenever time allowed.
In January 1960, Ed took a job in the Thermo-Electric Products division of 3M Company in St. Paul, Minn. In the early '60s he began singing barbershop music with the Minneapolis chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (SPEBSQSA). By the end of his 3M career, Ed had been promoted to marketing manager of 3M's Electrical Products division, a position that saw him traveling the world marketing such products as thermoelectric generators and phone cable splicing systems.
In 1975, Ed took an early retirement from 3M Company and moved to Hamilton, Mont., where he founded Western Environmental Homes to pursue a lifelong ambition to perform general contracting services for new home construction. In 1976, Ed became a dealer for Hallmark Pools and later started The Pool Works as an offshoot of Western Environmental Homes.
Ed and Lucille moved to the Flathead Valley in 1978. During Ed's retirement, he pursued his hobbies of fishing, woodworking, singing barbershop quartet music, and sailboat racing. He was a member of the Whitefish Boat Club in the late '70s and early '80s and later raced regularly as a member of the North Flathead Yacht Club. He was an enthusiastic member and office holder of the Flathead Valleyaires Chorus and held several positions in the Evergreen Division of SPEBSQSA.
Ed was a loving father and husband. He always had a positive outlook on life and had an unfailing sense of humor to the day he died. Ed had a strong faith in God and was an active church member all his life. He held church offices and sang in the choir. In Montana he was a member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church and later Northridge Lutheran Church.
Ed was preceded in death by his father and mother, Oscar and Ada Abel.
He is survived by his wife, Lucille, of Kalispell; sister, Margery Pohle, of New Berlin, Wis.; son and daughter-in-law, Tom and Sherry Abel, of Kalispell; daughter, Jennifer Abelle, of Puebla, Mexico; daughter and son-in-law, Lynn and Roy Dodds, of Elk River, Minn.; grandsons, Eric Abel, of Clackamas, Ore., and Eddy Abel, of Portland, Ore.; and two young great-grandchildren.
Ed will be sorely missed.
A memorial service for Ed will be held at Northridge Lutheran Church in Kalispell on Saturday, July 14, 2007 at 10 a.m. Friends are encouraged to join the family at the Flathead Lake Yacht Club on Saturday evening anytime after 7 p.m. to celebrate Ed's life.
Johnson Mortuary and Crematory is caring for Ed's family. You are invited to go to www.johnsonmortuary.com to offer condolences and sign Ed's guest book.