Wahkiakum Eagle-February 1999

MONROE, Arthur Lewis

  Age 82, died at the Hospice Care Center.  He was born in Clatskanie, 
to Alexander and Addelaide (Bellinger) Monroe and came to his home in 
the Elochoman Valley that same year.  He never married.
  After graduation from Wahkiakum High School at Cathlamet, he worked 
at a local mill on construction.  He learned to weld and worked on many 
jobs with this trade.  Some of them were ship repair, water tanks, and 
the Puget Island Bridge.  Two of the biggest jobs were working on the 
Grand Coulee Dam twice and at the Naval Base in Sitka.  He also worked 
on a large oil tanker, then at Dutch Harbor, Alaska.  He did repairs on 
a pipe line, an oil tank, a quick repair on a submarine.  He worked on 
a destroyer damaged when it collided in the fog.  He survived two days 
of air raids when they hit a ship which was used as a hotel and he lost 
all he had.
  A few months later he went to Seattle, and joined the merchant marine 
through a navy program.  He trained at Catalina Island then sailed 
tankers and freighters during WWII.  All the trips were to the South 
Pacific.  After the war he continued his work in the merchant marine 
and sailed to many areas in the world which included eight trips 
through the Panama Canal.  Some of the ports included harbors in 
Europe, Africa, South America and India.  On Christmas eve 1950 he was 
in the harbor of Hungnam, Korea where they evacuated troops and 
civilians.  He was at sea until 1959.  That year his parents farm was 
idle and he decided to stay home.  He purchased a small herd of white 
face cattle and started to raise beef animals.  He did this for 30 
years.  He sold this farm in 1989 but remained in the house as long as 
he wanted to.
  A sister, Grace Evelyn Monroe, preceded him in death in 1990, and 
brother, Harold Monroe in January, 1999.
  Survivors include a sister, Irene Lewis of Waldport, Ore., and 
numerous nieces and nephews.
  A funeral mass was held Monday at St. Catherine Catholic church with 
Father Scott Connolly officiating.
  Dowling Funeral Home was in charge.


Greenwood Cemetery-Cathlamet, Wa.
20 Mar 1916-19 Feb 1999
(As transcribed by the Wahkiakum County Historical Society 2005 from 
original newspaper collection.)