Gene Stiles 1945 — 2019
Gene Stiles died in the early morning hours of July 28, 2019 nine months after experiencing pain above his waist. He left his brothers Jim and Paul.. He was predeceased by his mother Arlene and his father Eugene Sr. He received medical care from the Veterans Administration, Moffit cancer center, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and Northwest Medical Specialties. Hospice care was provided by Multicare. Caregivers were Patti Rodgers, Paul Stiles and Jim Stiles.
Gene expressed his desire to go to the "Big Eddy" a deep pool in the green water of the Skykomish River near his homestead in GBNT, Gold Bar Nature Trails. He has, and will have, his wish.
Gene lived and worked in the four corners, and the middle, of the United States. The list of locations that follows is long, but incomplete. Your own memory of Gene will complete this list.
Formative Years: New Jersey
Gene grew up in Summit New Jersey, a suburb of New York City. Summers were spent on Barnegat Bay on the Atlantic Ocean coast of New Jersey. Gen graduated from Summit High school after a short stint in Valley Forge Military Institute. Along with friends, Gene spent two years at Franconia College in New Hampshire. Following college, Gene went on a road trip to Switzerland. The Vietnam war took control. He was drafted into the Army where his military experience made him a drill instructor at Ft. Dix, in New Jersey, where he spent two years defending the Garden State, courtesy of time on the drill field at VFMA.
Building In Vermont
Gene then ventured to Vermont and started building houses in Stowe, Charlotte and other towns.
Ski Country in the West
With friends who loved skiing, Gene spent a winter in Steamboat Springs Colorado where he found work in construction and hospitality. In the summer, he backpacked in the Flat Tops Wilderness and climbed Longs peak in Colorado's Rocky Mountains National Park. The next winter found him working in the Squaw Valley where it snowed no heavily that "You could just stand quietly and feel the snow weighing down the shoulders."
Road's End on Florida's West Coast
Not to stay in one place, Gene went as far south as he could on the west coast of Florida to the small fishing town of Goodland. In Goodland, Gene took up the hammer and renovated the Little Bar restaurant. The attractions of fishing intervened. He began fishing for blue crabs. The crabs have a soft shell period in their life cycle. Gene exploited this by forming an aquaculture business specializing in the culture of soft shell crabs. With his St. James Crab company, he supplied the Little Bar restaurant, to the delight of tourists seeking warm weather at the end of the road.
Sojurn on Barnegat Bay in New Jersey
Florida heat drove Gene back to Barnegat Bay for crab fishing in two summers, Florida in the Winters.
Gold Bar, Washington
Gene had a dream to move to the Pacific Northwest near Seattle where his brother lived. the Skykomish river east of Seattle had mountains and a developed RV camping community called Gold Bar Nature Trails. On Chapel Road, over May Creek, beyond the power lines, was a woody lot at the end of the park. An 8 wide trailer was moved in and covered with a roof. gene moved to Florida and Arizona without living in the trailer for 20 years. When living with his brother and pancreatic cancer, Gene longed for the peace of the cool green waters in the Big Eddy of the Skykomish river near his home in Gold Bar.
Gene returned to Florida to join his friend, Ricki Bauer, fishing in the Gulf. There were blue crabs, stone crabs. There was an aquaculture venture farming little neck hard clams. Red tide shut this down. Gene received a five figure compensation from the federal government.
Arizona
Moving on, Gene went west to Gene travelled west to visit his father near Prescott, Arizona. Once again, with hammer in hand, Gene built an adobe styled home and a large utility barn. Vehicles included three ATVs, one two wheeled BMW motorcycle, one three wheeled Ural motorcycle with the slogan "Dad's Last Ride", a truck, a Flair Class A motorhome, a John Deere backhoe, Also on wheels were tow large cargo trailers. and a Chevorolet Equinox small SUV. Numerous campers found their way onto Gene's pickup trucks. In Arizona, Gene installed cabinets in schools and businesses. A workshop was built into the barn to house an industrial scale wood shop with an impressive sawdust handling system. Somehow there was time for taking courses in art and welding at Yavapai college. In this time, Gene answered the call of his cousin Barbie to build a cabin in the high desert near Show Low on the eastern side of Arizona. I don't want to forget that Gene built a teardrop trailer for sale to a customer in Cottonwood.
Following the death of his father, Gene acquired acreage in the nearby town of Mayer. He improved the property and fought in vail with the county planning commission to construct a home on his property. In frustration, a manufactured home was purchased for the property. Gene's need to build was gratified with his construction of a tiny house.
Moving Back to Florida
Tools, vehicles, equipment, buiilding supplies were packed up and moved to the Ocala area in Florida. After a final trip to favorite stops in Washington state, Gene sold his Gold Bar lot and returned to Florida. Nagging pain in his abdomen and back was misdiagnosed as pancreatitis, then pancreatic cancer. In May, Gene flew to Seattle to be with his brother as medical visits and hospice care dealt with his deadly disease. Gene died on July 28, 2019 early in the morning.
Photo Gallery
As it happened in Gene's 74 years: Gene arrived in 1945 into a family that had horses, a sleigh, gardens, dogs, and a house built by his father at the end of a road called Stiles Lane. Home heating came from a coal burning furnace. Clothes were washed in a wringer washer, women wore girdles, the party line (shared) telephone was connected by an operator who connected with emergency services without 911. Gas station attendants pumped all gas while cleaning windows and checking oil levels. Super markets still had clerks who packed your purchases and added the cost by pencil on a brown paper bag. A lot has changed in 74 years. You can imagine the changes in communications, medicine, transportation, entertainment, computer chips and so much more. In building, pneumatic tools have taken over most of the nailing work. Lasers provide level lines and measurements over large distances., When fishing for crabs, the lines of crab pots lie hidden on the bottom of the bay until found with a GPS. As you think about the changes Gene experienced in his life, these are negligible compared to what will happen between now and 74 years hence in 2093.
Gene grew up in 4 s homes built by his father. You could hear his grandfather's hammer at work building a home on the next street. With his construction heritage, Gene carried on to build homes and businesses in Vermont, Florida, Colorado, Tennessee, and Arizona.
Never afraid to dirty his hands, Gene worked in one of the most difficult of professions, commercial fishing. He grew up with fish and crabs in front of two houses on the shore in Jew Jersey. In Florida, crab harvesting was a natural fit for working with his hands.
