Cloudy, 48° F
(August 9, 2002)
Memorial services will be conducted Wednesday, Aug. 14 at 2 p.m. at First United Methodist Church in Powell for Ralph Smalley Jr., 80, who died Friday, Aug. 9 at the Powell Hospital.
The Rev. Ron Kapalka will officiate at services. Cremation has taken place, and burial of cremains will be in Crown Hill Cemetery with IOOF graveside rites.
Mr. Smalley was born Jan. 7, 1922, in Powell to Ralph H. and Mae Smalley. After farming for a time with his father and brother Wayland, he finished his schooling in Billings, Mont.
He worked at Boeing Co. in Seattle as an aircraft mechanic and at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio before World War II. In 1942, he enlisted in the Navy, serving as an aircraft mechanic at Pearl Harbor. Later he took part in the Navy V-12 program in Butte, Mont., and Seattle and was discharged in 1946. He then completed his college work at Montana State University in Bozeman, becoming a mechanical engineer.
In 1948, he married Barbara I. McClelland from Xenia, Ohio, at the homestead in Powell. They settled in Powell, and he joined Stanolind Oil and Gas Co. at the Elk Basin field in production, later becoming equipment engineer for Amoco Production Co. After various moves, including Cody, Casper and Worland in Wyoming; Tyler and Ft. Worth in Texas; and Liberal, Kans., involving 34 years with Amoco, he retired and moved back to Powell in 1983.
He was a member of First United Methodist Church, a past grand of the Powell Lodge #17 of IOOF, past president of the Polecat Ramblers Good Sam camping club, a 34-year member of the Anadarko Basin Society of Petroleum Engineers and a member of the local Amoco Retirees Club. He enjoyed gardening, hunting, fishing and camping.
Survivors include his wife, Barbara I. Smalley of Powell; son Ralph R. Smalley and wife Mary of Powell; daughter Linda Milhon and husband Cecil and daughter Teressa Glenn, both of Liberal, Kans.; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents; brother Wayland Smalley; sister-in-law Barbara A. Smalley; son-in-law Robert Glenn and grandson Dustin Glenn.
