The Wahkiakum County Eagle-October 4, 2001 Cathlamet, WA Obituaries Wirkkala, Walter Frederick Rosburg resident Walter Fredrick Wirkkala, 86, died in Astoria September 28. The son of John Alexander and Hilma Sophia (Hanson) Wirkkala, he was born April 15, 1915 in Astoria. For the first five years of his life he was sick and lived with his grandparents where he spoke the Finnish language. By the time school began he was back with his parents and other siblings and he had a difficult time learning English. He grew up living in various logging camps throughout the Northwest where his parents worked. By the time he was 19 years old he settled in the Seal River area near Rosburg where he has resided since. He and Alma Kukkola were married May 21, 1942 in Naselle. She survives. He served briefly with the US Army during World War II until receiving a medical discharge. He worked in all phases of logging for Wirkkala Brothers, Peters & McKennon and Brix Brothers until disabled in an accident in 1959 when he retired. He also raised beef cattle and gillnetted on the Columbia and Deep Rivers. He had been a member of the International Woodworkers of America and attended Valley Bible Church in Grays River. Mr. Wirkkala enjoyed tinkering and working on farm machinery, he liked to deal and trade for cars and farm implements, enjoyed clam digging, time in the woods elk hunting and loved and was loved by animals and children. Honest and generous, his family will remember the many acts of kindness he showed friends and neighbors in the Seal River area he loved. Besides his wife of 59 yrs he is survived by daughter Joan Carroll of Omaha; son Robert Saari of Rosburg; brothers Ernest and Edwin Wirkkala of Rosburg; nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Four brothers and a sister died earlier. Memorial service will be Thursday, (today) at 1 p.m. at Valley Bible Church, Loop Road, Grays River. Memorials may be made to the Valley Bible Church in care of Penttila’s Chapel by The Sea, P.O. Box 417, Long Beach, WA 98631. Unknown Burial Location 15 April 1915-28 September 2001 (As transcribed by the Wahkiakum County Historical Society 2007 from original newspaper collection.)