Obituary of Carl Lewis Gehman

Carl Lewis Gehman was born on Feb. 19, 1917 in Vermontville, Michigan. He died December 22, 2006 in Vancouver, WA. Carl is survived by Lil, his wife of 68 years; children Gay Erickson, Mardell Peet, Lynn Gehman, niece Jacquie Duncan; 8 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and 7 great-great-grandchildren. Carl attended school in Bloomfield Iowa where he excelled in basketball and track, graduating from Bloomfield High School in 1935. His closest friend moved to Camas and found employment at the Crown Zellerbach Paper Mill and in 1936 Carl hitchhiked from Iowa to Washington State to join him. Carl worked at the Camas Paper Mill until a fractured back from an auto accident resulted in six months in a body cast in 1937. During his recovery, needing employment he could do while in a full body cast, he talked the Post Record Newspaper into employing him to assemble the first Camas-Washougal directory. While he was going door-to-door gathering names and addresses for the directory he met the love of his life Lillian Olson. Carl and Lil married in 1939. In 1945 Carl formed a partnership with his sister-in-law Vi Hudson to purchase the Imperial Cleaners in Camas. When the opportunity to purchase a sporting goods store arose in 1957 Carl couldn't resist the temptation to incorporate his greatest interests into a livelihood and he became the proprietor of Gehman's Sport Center. Making a living in a way that filled his days with conversations about hunting and fishing was a dream come true for Carl and he often joked he would awake mornings and feel like pinching himself to make sure that it was real and that he wasn't dreaming. Carl and Lil were active and involved members of the Camas Community. They were elected King and Queen of the Camas Days Festival in 1989. Carl was instrumental in the founding of the Camas Washougal Wildlife League and worked diligently for close to 50 years on behalf of the organization, volunteering countless hours as a firearms instructor, running the trap shoots, organizing the big game dinners, and doing whatever else needed to be done, serving many terms as it's President. Although his father died of pneumonia 5 days before he was born and he did not have a father figure in his life until his mother remarried when he was a teenager, Carl somehow instinctively knew how to be a great father. With unwavering love and patience he actively shared with his family all the activities that make for wonderful memories. When told in September of this year that he had acute Leukemia with probably only three or four months to live he responded with the same courage and resolve he had shown all of his life and said simply ''I have had a good life and done everything I wanted to do''; and to help ease the coming distress for his family got busy with plans for his funeral. He was a wonderful and very special husband, father and friend. Carl's memorial service will be held on Saturday January 6, at 2:00 pm at the Camas Washougal Wildlife League, 811 SE Leadbetter Rd, Camas, WA. Arrangements are under the direction of Straub?s Funeral Home & Columbia River Cremation in Camas. To send condolences or to sign the online guestbook visit www.straubsfuneralhome.com.