Ralph Oliver Aeschliman Sr., 97, passed away Nov. 16, 2013, at the Good Samaritan Village in Moscow.
Ralph was born Oct. 10, 1916, at the family farm above Almota on the Snake River, about 15 miles southwest of Colfax. He attended high school at Colfax.

He was fascinated by airplanes and flying and learned to fly at Wenatchee. He barnstormed throughout eastern Washington in the mid-1930s, but the poor economy of the Great Depression encouraged him to enlist in the U.S. Navy. He served for a while on the destroyer USS Monahan while waiting to attend flight school. After flight school, he served with a squadron of patrol bombers (PBY's) based in the Canal Zone of Panama. He patrolled the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, searching for German submarines and checking our lend-lease ships bound for Europe. Many of his fondest memories were of serving in the Navy, flying in the Gulf of Mexico and along the coasts of South and Central America.

When he was at the Navy boot camp, Anita Broweleit, also from the Colfax area, started a four-year correspondence with him. When he was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1941, she was attending Long Beach Community College in California. He went to Long Beach and began working in the aircraft industry as a precision inspector. He married Anita in April 1941.

Ralph lived and worked in southern California, but didn't like the commuting and traffic of southern California and he longed to live someplace where he could enjoy the outdoors and less population pressure.

In 1958, the family moved to Bellevue, Wash., where Ralph again worked in the aircraft industry. Anita worked at various jobs in Bellevue and Seattle and settled into work as a clerk in the Bellevue Post Office.

The family missed the beaches and weather of southern California, and in 1963 returned to Seal Beach. There, Ralph started working as a carrier for the Seal Beach Post Office while Anita worked there as a clerk. Ralph enjoyed the exercise and social contact of letter carrying and stayed with that work until he retired on his 60th birthday.

Southern California, meanwhile, had lost its charm for the whole Aeschliman family and when a friend who was a Realtor found a nice deal on some lakefront property with a small cottage on Lake Sammamish in Bellevue, they decided to buy it and returned to the Pacific Northwest.

While living on Lake Sammamish, he and Anita built a cabin on the Olympic Peninsula. The cabin sat on a 70-foot cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean and provided great seclusion and walks on a nearly pristine beach.

When Anita retired from her secretarial job with Safeway in Bellevue, they sold the Lake Sammamish property and moved to Honeymoon Bay on Whidbey Island, Wash., near Greenbank and Langley.

While on Whidbey Island, Ralph, together with Anita's brother Milton of Moses Lake, Wash., built an airplane - a two-place Kitfox - but Ralph was to fly it one time. Health reasons forced him to sell the plane.

Meanwhile, their son, Ron, convinced them that they might like to live in Brookings, Ore., and so about 1998 they sold their house and left Whidbey Island for Brookings to be near Ron. In 2005, they moved into Good Samaritan Village in Moscow near their son, Ralph Jr. Ralph lived at Good Samaritan Village for eight years.

Ralph was preceded in death by all his siblings and his wife of 72 years, Anita.

He is survived by his sons, Ralph Jr. of Moscow, and Ron Roads of Lakebay, Wash.; his grandson, Thomas Aeschliman of Bellingham, Wash.; and his granddaughter, Elizabeth Burke of Seattle.

A memorial service is being planned for a later date at Good Samaritan Village in Moscow.

Private graveside services will be held at the Onecho Cemetery. Kimball Funeral Home of Pullman is caring for the family. Online condolences may be sent to www.kimballfuneralhome.com.

Lewiston Tribune November 21, 2013