ORIGIN OF NAME - His middle name was given to him after his grandfather, George Gawley.

TIME LINE - Alfred George Gawley was born in Olympia, Washington at 4:00 am on June 13, 1912. EDUCATION - Al remembers walking to Ladd Elementary School located in Portland at West Park and Jefferson Street as a 6 year old. Currently, the Art Museum is located on this property. As a student, he would rather play than study and his mother (Daisy Hodges) was not inclined to help with studies or spend any time reading stories to him. His Dad (Thomas Henry) was also rarely around, working long hours as a physical director at the YMCA which was then located at SW 5th and Taylor streets in Portland, Oregon. About the year 1920 at age 8, his family moved to NE 48th & Stanton. There, he attended Beaumont Elementary School, which at that time was a portable building heated by a big wood stove in each room, or cooled in the hot September days by a string of beans to shade the windows and building from the south exposed sun. His academics at Beaumont were not all that good and when a certain teacher was always catching him at his misdemeanor, it was decided he should go to Rose City Park school where he graduated. While attending Rose City Park, Al was at one time given special treatment to catch up with his class studies, but after catching up and getting ahead, he fell back to his normal poor study habits. In the fall of 1931, Al went to Oregon State University while carrying a paper route for a short time until he found it too demanding and quit the route. By this time, he had accumulated enough money for two years at college. He graduated from Grant High School in 1930 and took an extra year post graduate at the High School, at which time he failed in the typing class, but was still carrying Oregonians and saving some money for college which was my dad's suggestion I do. OCCUPATION - While in the 6th and 7th grades Al sold the Saturday Evening Post and Ladies Home Journal. He built a route of 50 customers which he sold at 5 cents per customer to another boy. In the 8th grade, he was able to get an Oregonian Daily Newspaper route which he delivered each morning from 4:30 am to 6:00 am. This was during the good economic times helping the route grow in numbers and profit. He worked as a shoes salesman at J.C. Penny's right out of college. He worked there for about 5 years, half in Silverton, Oregon, and the other half in Toledo, Oregon. Coincidentally, while working in Toledo, he also worked at a dance club. He ended up dancing one night with one of the ladies. He described the two of them as dancing on air. Later on, he would marry this wonderful person, Mary Elizabeth Yoder. He also worked for the CCC, which after only working for 1 month, folded up. A friend of his got him a job at the Bonneville Power plant typing vouchers in the land division for which he was grateful since he was newly married. Al was in the Sea bees unit of the United States Navy while involved in World War II from 1942 to 1945. He served his time in several places, including Camp Perry in Williamsburg, Virginia, a year and a half at Port Huenomie, California, and six months in Okinawa, Japan after the war had ended. Much of the time Al served, he worked as a yeoman doing clerical work since he had good typing skills. On November 8, 1945, Al was Honorably Discharged from the U.S. Navy. He later became involved with his father's business, working at Multnomah Fuel Company. The Multnomah Fuel Company had property located at 4700 Macadam Blvd extending down to Willamette River. The company originally sold firewood and coal, while later the company delivered both heating oil and propane gas. Al was primarily responsible for scheduling all the propane deliveries. One of the big challenges was to ensure keeping the customer's tanks from running out while working within their budgets to not get deliveries too often. Some customers would refuse to take a scheduled delivery and then run out of propane and Al would often make a special delivery himself on a weekend to avoid having to pay the normal drivers time and a one-half to work the weekend. Occasionally, he would bring his son Tom along with him while he was making the deliveries. Al was actually one of 4 partners in the business and they eventually sold the company and property to a bigger company.

INTERESTS - As a boy, he enjoyed "working" in the checkroom handing out towels to those coming to exercise at the YMCA. When the man in charge, Mr. Alvord, became ill and was hospitalized Al's dad (Thomas Henry) encouraged Al to visit him but he wouldn't go. This obstinate and thoughtless nature has been with him all his life. Realizing that this characteristic was part of his nature, he's tried to be more compassionate in his later years. He also searched out people who did possess this trait he admired. His first wife, Mary, and his current wife, Lois, both have the loving and generous nature he admires and appreciates. Mary's mother, Harriet Scholfield Yoder Lieuallen, lived with Al and Mary and was a loving grandmother for their two children (Maryal Susan and Thomas Arthur). During his teenage years living at home, he earned enough money to be self-sufficient. He bought his own clothes and at the age of 16, bought a 1921 Chevrolet for $50, which he used to drive to school. One time he recalls, hauling the soccer team to Jefferson High and was requested to return for a second load at which time he had a flat tire, so not only did he not get to play but the fellows were peeved at him for stranding them at the distant school. Also, from his accumulated funds, he loaned his Dad some money to help him buy into the Multnomah Fuel Company that was a coal and wood business. His father's funds enabled the company to buy their first oil truck and Thomas Henry's job was to get oil customers, which came naturally because of his wide acquaintances as physical director at the YMCA. Thomas Henry used his 1921 Chevrolet to make some of his sales calls and when that wore out Al helped him buy a new 1929 Chevrolet from his friend Arthur Fields. Al still had the privilege of driving the new car to school from time to time, but after it was paid for, Thomas Henry's new wife (Oro Del Caples) thought he should continue to pay half of his earnings into the family coffers. Al later bought a motorcycle, which he took to Oregon State College for his first year. After Al retired from Multnomah Fuel Company, Mary and Al would spend about 6 months each year in Palm Desert. They bought a small trailer they nicknamed "Packy", and would even bring their good china with them to the desert. Over the years, they stayed in various trailer homes that they rented, always with enough room that Tom (their son) and Anne (Tom's wife) could bring their children, Ken, Kevin and Kristine along and stay for a weekend with them. Most of their vacations were someplace sunny (Hawaii, Las Vegas, Miami, Jamaica, Palm Desert, etc.), where Mary could just sit in the sun, get a tan, read and do crossword puzzles. Al enjoyed playing golf and painting in both places. His paintings would often be of Mount Hood, or the desert landscape. When Al and Mary settled into their retirement home at the Willamette View Manor, he lent his talents design and paint a 15-foot mural of the Matterhorn and Swiss Alps that serves as a backdrop to a model train set and village. Al recalls, at about age 75 while wintering in Palm Desert, California he bought a used Schwinn bicycle and rode it to and from their rental couch to the swimming pool. At age 79 he was legally blind and could no longer drive his car, so he gave it to his son (Thomas Arthur) and kept the bike to ride back and forth to our stores which were 2 miles away. The bike was equipped with 'road' tires which carried 100 lbs of pressure and made traveling on the hard surface roads easier to pump. Al also participated in many Senior Olympics games in the sport of swimming. Some of the places he went to participate included Palm Desert and Salt Lake City. He swam in many events, and won many medals. In his efforts to remain involved in the community, he volunteered his time tutoring kids for 10 years, both at the elementary school, and sometimes the kids would come over to the Willamette View Manor for him to help them out. On November 28, 1998, Al married again to Lois B. Harrison Lampert at the Willamette View Manor.

Written by grandson Kenneth Michael Gawley in 2016