Harold R. Stapleton 26 June 1919 - 6 February 1997

Harold Raymond Stapleton was born June 26, 1919 in Michigan. His mother died when he was 18 months old, and he was raised by a stepmother. He had only a grammar school education, leaving school to begin work at a young age. He served in the U.S. Army during WWII as a cook.

In 1945, he married Katy Mable Smart on March 3rd. Two daughters were born in the next five years and in 1950, the Stapletons moved to Glendale, Oregon. With no training as a carpenter, Harold built his family a house and went to work as a logger, starting out with a team of horses, and later acquiring a used log truck. He worked very long, hard hours and had many close calls in the dangerous logging business.

In 1959, his wife convinced him to apply to the Glendale School District for a job as a maintenance man, where he worked for the next 21 years, taking the title of "maintenance man" literally. He and his crew kept the schools clean, repaired and functioning smoothly. He refinished floors, repaired machinery, drove buses, mowed the fields, painted buildings and took great pride in his work. In 1964, he built his family a second home on N. Reuben Rd. He retired from the school district in 1980.

Though officially "retired", he continued his lifelong habit of hard work, cutting cords of firewood, raising cattle and doing repair work for others. He considered idle time a waste of one's life, except for those rare occasions spent fishing. To him, his work was his worth.

In 1996, he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease and over the next year, his health and strength were destroyed by the disease. The man who worked as hard as he could all his life died Feb. 6, 1997, a helpless invalid.

Harold Stapleton was a simple man who loved his family and spent his life for them. I will always remember this, Dad.

Betty Stapleton Stanfill

The music is "Dust In The Wind"

Memoriam Front Door] [Make a Memorial Submission] [Glendalealumni Homepage]