Charles Homer Doxtater
A memorial service will be held at First United Methodist Church in Corvallis, Ore., on Friday, Dec. 3, at 1 p.m. for Charles Homer Doxtater who died at the age of 94, on Nov. 12, in a nursing home in Beaverton, Ore. He was born in Havre on April 26, 1910, to Charles W. and Iva E. Hatler Doxtater.
Mr. Doxtater attended school in Whitefish and Havre. He graduated from Whitefish High School in 1929. He was active in sports, playing varsity football and basketball, and also worked all through high school.
He worked in the CCC Camps in first aid in Montana and in the field in California. He attended Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn. on a football scholarship in 1934.
At one time Mr. Doxtater worked in a creamery in Spokane making peanut butter and ice cream. He married Fern "Terry" Harriet Walte, whom he met at Hamline University, on Oct.18, 1936.
He settled in Billings for about four years and worked in a creamery making butter, ice cream, popsicles, Eskimo Pies, cottage cheese and pasteurizing and bottling milk. The family lived in Deer Lodge during World War II. They moved to Libby in 1951 and took over the Blue Bear, a drive in and fountain lunch. They sold the business in 1963.
They moved to Corvallis in 1968 and bought a Taco Time franchise, which he and his wife operated until April of 1975, when they retired.
After retiring he and his wife, Terry, designed and built a log cabin on Crystal Lake where they spent many summers. His interests were fishing, skiing, and playing tennis. The Libby Chamber of Commerce recognized him for building tennis courts and creating and maintaining an ice skating rink in the Blue Bear Parking Lot; other hobbies included reading, jogging, walking, carpentry and working on his cabin.
Terry died in 2001, and he was preceded in death by two sisters and a brother.
Survivors include: daughter, Gail Diedrich of Los Alamos, N. M., son, Dennis Doxtater of Tucson, Arizona; twin daughters, Jane Esping of Beaverton Ore. and Jean Bays of Bellingham, Wash.; nine grandchildren and one great grandson.
Send memorial contributions to Macular Degeneration Center Fund, Casey Eye Institute, 3375 SW Terwilliger Blvd., Portland, OR, 97201. Arrangements in care of Pegg, Paxson, and Springer Chapel in Beaverton, Ore.