Obituary
Robert Leroy McQueen, died November 8, 2021 while at home with family. It was his warm, gentle and kind heart that took him from us.
He was born April 21, 1934 in Portland, OR to Robert and Hazel (Wishart) McQueen. Bob had one brother, Richard E. McQueen.
He was raised and educated in Portland and graduated from Benson Technical High School. He attended college at Seattle Pacific and Portland State University, and Portland Electronics College.
He enlisted in the US Army from 1953-1956 and served during the Korean War era in Valdez, Alaska. He became a communications specialist and helped maintain and build the Distance Early Warning (DEW) line in Alaska. He worked with the Alaska Communications Service building and maintaining telephone lines originally built on tripod poles.
He met Doris Marilyn Norman in Portland at a church function and was quickly smitten. They married on April 23, 1954 in Portland and in short order moved to Valdez, AK, where Bob had already been assigned. At one time they lived in a small trailer home that became covered with snow in the winter.
After an honorable discharge from the Army, he worked for Owen Meals, an Alaskan aviation pioneer, who owned and operated the Light Plant, a power generation system in Valdez. He helped to operate and maintain the giant diesel generator for the town as well as connecting homes to the power grid.
Bob and Doris have four children. Robert and Ron were born in Valdez, AK, Cheryl and Gary were born in Portland, OR. The family moved from Valdez in 1960 and settled in Beaverton, OR.
Bob was employed by the West Coast Telephone Company in Beaverton, which later became GTE, Verizon, and Frontier. He built and maintained telephone systems and later promoted to transmission and protection supervisor in Gresham, OR. He looked forward to responding to “a case of trouble” in all parts of Oregon and western Washington, and especially looked forward to being requested near La Grande and Enterprise, OR., a favorite area to visit.
Bob was a Scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 870 in Beaverton, OR and later started Troop 248 in Sandy, OR, mentoring many young people along the way.
Bob joined the Sandy (OR) Fire District as a volunteer in 1973. He was a firefighter, emergency medical technician, apparatus operator and general informal leader and teacher. He retired in 2006 after a remarkable volunteer career, and kept his coffee cup there for several more years.
He retired from GTE/Verizon in 1991 becoming a full-time husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, family electrician and plumber, and formed McQueen Communications with Doris. Their company continued installing telephone systems in many businesses in the Portland and Mt. Hood areas including Timberline Lodge.
Bob enjoyed his retirement years by spending time with family, camping and hunting, and generally just being there whenever wanted and needed. His love of Wallowa County (OR) is the reason the McQueen family continues to cherish that area. For more than 50 years he and the family camped and hunted there. He is the reason the McQueen family has annually spent almost 30 years at a big campout at Wallowa Lake State Park, where he installed the very first pay telephone in the park in 1964.
Bob set a high bar in his life of service to others. He demonstrated a fierce love and loyalty towards his wife, children and grandchildren.
Bob is survived by his wife, Doris, son Robert (Ana), daughter Cheryl Way (Lyndon), son Ron (Shanna) and son Gary (Cindy). He and Doris have 20 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Bob (1984) and Hazel (1981), brother Richard McQueen in 2015 and beloved daughter-in-law Gretchen (Denhart) McQueen (2000).
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Bob’s name to the Sandy Volunteer Firefighter’s Association, the American Cancer Society, Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Life Flight Network Foundation, Habitat for Humanity or Southern Poverty Law Center.
His graveside service will be at Willamette National Cemetery with full military honors.