Howard Westly Trowbridge November 16, 1917 - June 8, 2013

Howard Westly Trowbridge was born November 16, 1917 in Cogswell, North Dakota, and died peacefully of natural causes at the age of 95 on June 8, 2013.

Howard married Lois Beth Archer in July of 1946 in Bend, Oregon.

He spent his youth growing up in Hibbing, Minnesota and joined the Conservation Corp, then the Army, in Ft. Snelling, MN, and the Army Air Corp at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas.

Howard worked as a welder during World War II in Superior, Wisconsin, where he taught welding and qualified the welding crews to work on the ships: a Flower-class corvette, which was a small, fast freighter, and a submarine chaser.

Howard worked in Sisters as a gypo logger, and was able to take three loads of logs each day into the Brooks-Scanlon Mill in Bend. He traveled many times to Alaska, finding various jobs to support his family. He was a welder by trade and could work and maintain heavy machinery such as graders and caterpillars.

Howard loved airplanes and maintained a pilot's license, and owned a Stinson for several years. He also manufactured and sold toy airplanes throughout Canada and the United States.

He was an inventor, making the world's smallest, suitcase-sized sawmill. He also made self-loading log loaders and hay loaders that used a boom-and-winch design.

Howard is survived by sons Lance Trowbridge and Erwin Trowbridge; daughters Gwen Lowe and Katie Gamel; grandchildren Angela Stahancyk, Tara Folts, Andrew Trowbridge, Britney Trowbridge, Frances Warnagiris and Roger McMullen; great-grandchildren Emma Stahancyk, Wade Stahancyk, Marissa Folts, Cameron Folts, Hunter Trowbridge and Mary Warnagiris; and sisters June Howard and Arcelia Trowbridge.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Lois; parents John Logan Trowbridge and Florence Louise Alexander Trowbridge; brothers Rex, Logan, Jack and Ira Trowbridge; and sister Ester Trowbridge.

A service for Howard will be held at Sisters Community Church, 1300 W. McKenzie Hwy., on Thursday, June 13, with casket viewing at 1 p.m. and service at 2 p.m. It will be followed by burial at Camp Polk Cemetery at 3 p.m., and then a celebration of life at 213 W. Adams Ave.