Edward Fowler Hope

March 5, 1933 – February 27, 2022

Edward Fowler Hope was born on March 5, 1933 in Pasadena, CA to Helen Shannon and George Wyman Hope. He grew up in Pasadena. After World War II he briefly lived on a farm in San Juan Capistrano. Summers were spent at Rock Creek in the high Sierras, camping with his parents, older brother Shannon and baby brother John. It was there that he met Susan Phipps at 9,500 feet, the beginning of a seventy-year partnership. Ed enlisted in the Navy and served on the tanker USS Cacapon during the Korean conflict. Elizabeth, Cynthia, and Deborah were born in California, living in Van Nuys, Ramona, Los Angeles and Pasadena.

In 1962, the Hopes relocated to rainy St. Helens, OR where the family weathered the Columbus Day hurricane. Sue and the girls sheltered by candlelight in a back bedroom while Ed chased runaway tires from the Gillaspie’s tire store amid flying debris. Sunny Roseburg was next in 1963, and the advent of little sister Laura. Ed built houses and remodeled their once stately house on Main Street that had late 1800’s burgundy flowered wallpaper and ancient plumbing.  Summers were glorious with camping at Lemolo Lake, tide pooling and crabbing near Sunset Bay, and crawdad picnics up the North Umpqua River.

Late summer of 1967, Ed took a vocational instructor position at Timber Lake Job Corps in the Mt. Hood National Forest.  The family of six, plus four dogs and cats, moved up the Clackamas River Road into staff housing, a 12’ x 60’ trailer. Ed built a needed “bonus” room with woodstove and reflective insulation for the snowy winter in the foothills of the Cascades.  He taught and mentored disadvantaged teens from inner cities of the East and the deep South. They learned carpentry, fire fighting, campground construction and maintenance.

Ed and Sue bought a house outside of Estacada and closer to schools in 1969.  Some years later, Ed transferred to the Forest Service Regional Office in Portland to help manage safety training and the production of safety materials, which included hand-drawing many of the illustrations.

Retiring from the Forest Service in 1985, Ed found a home at Bentley’s Manufacturing, where he built custom boat interiors and measured ski-boats, yachts, and even TriMet buses for new seats, toppers, and canopies.  He enjoyed coffee chats with the Bentley’s and was the “go-to” helper for fellow employees with any kind of problem!  The shrubs and trees around Bentley’s were also his domain.

In the late 80’s, after all the girls moved out, Ed and Sue moved down to “the river” (Columbia) where they could park their sailboat du jour in the “front yard”, convenient for weekly races.  They renovated a vintage floating home nestled among sailboats moored along Bridgeton Road in NE Portland.  River traffic, herons, raccoons, sea lions, hourly jet landings and an expanding deck garden provided daily entertainment.

Along the way, Ed enjoyed cross-country skiing with Sue, daughters Laura and Cynthia, and many friends. Road trips included motor-homing from Wisconsin to Alaska with Sue and grandson Matthew, through British Columbia with granddaughter Heikki, snowbirding to Casa Grande, AZ and coastal California to visit brother John and wife Marty. Fantastic tales have been told of two drives through Ireland, the home of his favorite beverage- Guinness, with Sue, Cynthia, and Johnny.  Debbie and Laura experienced hair-raising and sometimes hilarious adventures cruising and racing sailboats, dodging barges upriver and down, with dad on the lines and mom at the tiller.

Family, faith, and fun were paramount in Ed’s life, not necessarily in that order. Ed and Sue were charter members of the annual St. Paul congregation cruise aboard the “Gallant Lady” plying the waters of the San Juan Islands.  Ed generously gave of his time and talents:  cooking and dishwashing at Zarephath’s Kitchen (feeding the hungry in Gresham), serving on church council and taskforces at St. Paul of Damascus Lutheran Church (Boring), crafting devotional crosses of exotic woods given to church members and guests, and ending up at Augustana Lutheran, in Portland.  He used his landscaping talent designing a Japanese-style prayer garden for St. Paul of Damascus church, building a beautiful fence enclosure and supervising the installation of plants and rocks.

Ed’s last years were marked by the gradual descent into vascular dementia, a foot infection that would not be shaken, and increased difficulty getting around, but he continued to enjoy joking with neighbors, playing silly games with great-grandchildren and making his way down to the houseboat for a Guinness on the deck.

Ed “crossed the bar” in the early morning hours of Sunday, February 27, one week short of his 89th birthday, piloted by three daughters singing along to the Hallelujah Chorus, Irish Rovers, and the Kingston Trio.

Edward Hope was preceded in death by his parents, Helen and G. Wyman Hope, and his older brother Shannon Hope.  He is survived by his wife, Susan Phipps Hope, his brother John Hope (Martha) of Pasadena, his daughters, Elizabeth Hanson (Duane), Cynthia Hope (John Sublett), Debbie Hope, and Laura May (Scott).  His legacy of love includes eight grandchildren, eleven great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandson.

A Celebration of Life gathering is being planned for early summer- to be announced.

Donations in Ed’s memory to the Oregon Food Bank would have given him great satisfaction.