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| About my Dad | | Source/Author | Fred Capell | | Date | March , 2003 | | Summary | | Our Dad, George Fredrick Capell was born in Portland Oregon on August 26, 1915 to Edgar M Capell (the first Edgar M) and Blanche White Capell. Dad was the 4th child, with Edgar, Jr ("Roe") about 5 years older, and 2 sisters, Florence nd Alice about 1 1/2 and 3 years older.
They lived in Sellwood very near the bluff overlooking Oaks Park and the Willamette River. Dad apparently had a happy free early childhood and spent many hours in the considerable open, wooded and marshy areas between his home and the river. Dad became involved with Boy Scouts and scouting became his passion.
Tragedy struck the family when Dad's mother contracted cancer and died soon after his 13th birthday. Our Grandfather, raising 4 teenagers, also was caring for his elderly parents who both passed on within the 16 month period following the loss of his wife. There were obviously some very difficult times and Dad's scouting activities and one special scoutmaster were immensely important to Dad during this period of hi9s life.
A short time later, the family moved from Sellwood to Montevilla district,near Mt. Tabor. Da gained a stepmother Alice, when he was about 15, together with a stepbrother, Leslie, who was about 6, and a year later a baby sister, Joan. With Dad's older siblings soon choosing to be on their own, the new family unit became Dad's father, stepmom, and 2 much younger siblings, and stability and happiness returned to the family.
Dad graduated from Washington High School in 1033 and immediately thereafter began a long association with Eastman Kodak and the photography industry. This was during the depths of the Great Depression./ He began as a stock boy,in the Portland retail store that Kodak then operated and eventually held many different positions in the Portland Kodak operations, working his way up in the company.
About this same time, right after high school, he met our mother, Waketa Rickel, at Grace Baptist Church where he liked to play his guitar and sing. Mom was 13 (4 1/2 years younger that Dad) and it wasn't until 2 or 3 years later that they began to date. After a 2 year courtship, they were married on May 28, 1939. Dad was then almost 24, and Mom ha just turned 19. They moved into a small, but brand new house near the southwest Portland community of Multnomah and had us 3 boys, Dennis, Fredrick, and Edgar III during the next 4 years.
Dad and Mom planned and built their their dream house in the same southwest Portland area, in 1948 when Dad was 33. Typical of Dad and Mom, their plans were big and challenging, but they were able to work together well and bring out the best in each other. Dad was very much a do-it-yourselfer and participated in the whole process as his own general contractor and a participant in many areas of the construction.
From as far back as any of us an remember, for a couple weeks every summer, Dad had what we saw as the incredibly important job of taking the photo finish pictures at the Multnomah County Fair horse races. He also races. He had built his own camera, which took a movie-like succession of shots of a narrow strip at the finish line, to determine the order in which the horses crossed the line. It had to be absolutely lined up, focused and timed perfectly, and the first race of the year made Dad really tense. Mom made sure we boys would temporarily curtail our normal distractions.
In about 1957 Dad and Mom purchased Tupper Florest, a well-established neighborhood florist shop in southwest Portland. Most of the everyday operations of the shop were conducted by Mom, while Dad, then a sales representative for Kodak, participated during some of his spare time, as did we 3 often-reluctant sons. Dad frequently would have preferred to have Mom at home, but he knew how much she wanted to work with the flowers and people at the flower shop.
Dad and Mom showed the same capacity to work well together in the daunting task of raising us boys. Both were committed to the absence of conflict in the family, while w boys were pretty slow to learn to search for peaceful solutions. Dad was inclined to give us more latitude, but provided an absolutely consistent example of reliability and commitment. It was remarkable how often Dad carried to work with him a request to find some item in town of importance to one of us boys, and how faithfully he invariably found the time to do what we had asked.
In 1958, after 25 years with Eastman Kodak, the company invited Dad to a celebration in the Rochester, New York main office. Rather than fly back, Dad bought us an18 foot travel trailer and took us all on a 6-week, 10,000 mile trip around the country, visiting 32 states and passing through Rochester for the Kodak celebration.
about 1959 Mom contracted cancer which she and Dad fought with admirable bravery and dedication to each other and to us boys until Mom passed away in March, 1962. During this period and for the ensuing year, a terrible grief and huge responsibility fell on Dad while he continued his ever increasing responsibilities at home as well as at Kodak. We boys, then 18 to 21 years old, were really not much help or moral support. But Dad was a man with an extraordinary sense of responsibility.
Dad married again 1 1/2 years later to Jean, who had long been a family acquaintance. He remained a dedicated husband to Jean until her death in November 2002.
Dad kept working for Kodak (and Treck Photographic, which bought out Kodk's Portland operations) eventually being promoted to the position of Sales Manager, an attainment which gave him a great sense of accomplishment. He retired in 1975, just before his 60th birthday. He was an avid golfer during his retirement, and traveled to Europe once and New Zealand several times.
A major stroke in 1985 at age 70 left Dad totally unable to communicate or recognize even those closest to him. We witnessed his confidence and courage, as he never withdrew from life or allowed the difficulty of relearning to talk, to silence him. He recovered considerably and lived comfortably in his King City mobile home with Jean while being afflicted with an increasing dementia in the late 1990s. In May 2002 Dad went to live at Cedar Crest, a care facility for those afflicted with Alzheimers disease and dementia. He found little joy at being there, but remained well cared for and relatively comfortable and pain free until his death on March 30, 2003. |
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| People Connected to This Article | | | Name | Born | Father | Mother | Family | Details |  | Capell, George Fredrick | 1915 | Capell, Edgar Monroe | Capell (White-Strommond), Blanche | Family | Details |
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