Jim Rhodes, a much loved family member has passed on. His son Mike has given us this lovely tribute to him:
With a heavy heart, my dad James Rhodes quietly passed away Saturday morning, June 18th at age 92, from complications after contracting Covid four weeks prior. He was born and raised in Bridal Veil, the Columbia River was his playground. In childhood he worked by milking cows for Fred Lusher, learned commercial gill net fishing on the Columbia and working at the Bridal Veil sawmill.
He graduated from Corbett High School and married his high school sweetheart, Jean Kerslake in 1951. During high school he learned to fly, soloing at Seaside airport after 5 1/2 hrs of instruction when he was 16 and earned his Private Pilot’s license on his 17th birthday at the Division St airport, which is now long gone.
After high school he belonged to the Oregon Air National Guard, which was activated in 1951 and was sent to O’Hare Air Force Base in Chicago during the Korean War. After discharge in 1952 he worked at the Portland Braley & Graham Buick dealership in the Parts department. He was eventually offered the Parts Dept Manager position at their new dealership in Sacramento to which he said there was no way he was moving to Sacramento.
In the mid-60’s he started work for the Multnomah County Road Dept as a truck driver, then became the east county district supervisor. He was proud there wasn’t a road in east county he didn’t have a hand in making wider and clearer. He’d much rather ask his supervision “in town” for forgiveness than permission.
He often told the story about widening Palmer Mill road from Larch Mountain to Bridal Veil. There were a number of trees and stumps that needed to be removed, so he had the county “Powder Monkey” come out to move some stumps out of the way. He said by the time they were done with the road, they’d gone through 75 cases of dynamite. He chuckled saying it looked like a war zone. He didn’t ask for permission on that project either, though it did raise a few eyebrows “in town” when they got wind of all the dynamite. He really enjoyed the autonomy that east county afforded him to get a lot of work done with the minimum of hassle from his management.
His last 4 yrs with the county was as the oiling crew supervisor. He planned and executed all the paving and road rebuilding throughout Multnomah County, retiring in 1986. Believe me…. County roads have only gone downhill since then.
Dad served on the Corbett School Board from the late 60’s to early 70’s, preserving the Corbett schools during a time when there was pressure to close the schools and move the high school students to Sam Barlow. He served 20+ yrs on the Corbett District 14 Fire Dept board. The grading of the parking lot around the Corbett Fire Station was surveyed and hand calculated by him for the asphalt contractor to use. He was also Boy Scout Troop 272 Scout Master in Corbett for many years. During his time as Scout Master he was focused on Corbett’s kids getting the most out of their scouting experiences. The troop produced more Eagle Scouts than any other troop in the Council during his time.
His entire life was devoted to his family and community. He is survived by his two sons Mike (Prineville) and John (Crescent City), 3 grandsons Thomas (Corbett), David (Santa Barbara) & Jason (Corbett) and 4 great grandsons, Wyatt, Cole, Austin & Dylan. His legacy in east county is now part of history and marks the end of an era. You are missed more than you can know. We are who are because of you and you made our community better than you found it.
God’s Speed on your next journey, as you slip the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.
