Obituary of David R. Earl

David Russell Earl died on August 30, 2014, of age related causes. He was born on February 1, 1930, in a birthing home in Salem, Oregon, to William and Cova Earl. He attended rural Clatsop Grade School, located in a farmland community three miles north of Seaside, Oregon. One teacher had to teach twenty-two children from grade one through eight. From there, he went to Seaside High School where he was President of his school’s National Honor Society, played on its undefeated 1946 football team, and was chosen to play in the Oregon inaugural Shrine All-Star Football Game in 1948. Oregon State University awarded him a football scholarship, but he played only a year there and then transferred to the University of Oregon where he threw the shot and discus for track coach Bill Bowerman. He was a member of the Order of the O and the class of 1951. He majored in business and minored in advertising and journalism. In 1950 he married Iris Smith, who predeceased him in 1981. She was the mother of his two natural children, Linda Kaye Earl of Olympia, Washington, and Katherine Marjorie Earl, of Springfield, Oregon. In 1981 he married his second wife, Ann Thayer Greene, who predeceased him in 2011. He is also survived by her three children, Paula Jennings and Virginia Collins of San Diego, California, and Maria S. Greene, of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is predeceased by Ann’s son, John B. Greene, of Dessau, Germany. He was past president of the Oregon Collectors Association, Eugene Executive Association, and SCORE. He was also a director of American Collectors Association, officer of Toastmasters International, board of directors of the Eugene Chamber of Commerce and a long time member of Rotary Club and Town Club of Eugene. When he retired in 1998 after being in business for forty-seven years, he sold Coastal Adjustment Bureau, Inc., Oregon Billing Service, Inc., and PDQ, Inc. He previously owned Eugene Personnel Service, Inc., which he sold in 1983. In 2000 he and his wife, Ann, sold their commercial building. After the sale of the building, he leased his personal office in that building for many years, where he enjoyed one of his hobbies, writing for publication. Three of his books were published, The Bankruptians in 1966, Confessions of a Bill Collector from Poverty Knob in 1995, and AD2120: Life 100 Years From Now in 2006. Numerous regional and national articles of his were printed in magazines and newspapers. He enjoyed playing handball for thirty-five years, snow skiing, golfing, photography, and world travel. In 2000 and 2001 he went to Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa on photographic safaris and lived in tents in the bush for two weeks at a time. At his request, there will be no funeral. There will be a gathering of his friends and relatives at Willie’s Lebanese and Northwest Cuisine restaurant in Springfield, on Saturday, September 13th, from 1:00 to 5:00. In lieu of flowers you may send a donation to the Salvation Army.