Travis Elroy Sulzer's Obituary
Travis Elroy Sulzer, was born in his Grandmother Turner's split log house, Travis lived there at different times while growing up. Early on he developed an interest in radios, building his first one while in high school. He graduated in 1938. The family moved to Louisiana in 1940 he married Mavis Chellette, they had six children; Daughter Barbara & son Douglas predeceased him.
In the 1930's Travis joined the Civilian Conservation Corp as a radio operator. He stayed up all night learning the radio codes in order to get the job. Early 1940's Travis moved the family to California for a job on an Army project that had some secrecy to it. In 1944, knowing married family men were to be drafted, he chose to join the Navy as his three brothers were in the Navy. He was given more training & sent to Gulfport, MS as an instructor in radio, radar & electronics. After the war the family moved to Tallulah, LA where he opened a radio & refrigerator shop, later adding television repair.
In 1950 he hired on with Philco Corp, moving to Olympia, WA as a technical representative working at Fort Lewis. Philco then transferred him to the Presidio in San Francisco, CA. He & Mavis divorced & he took at job in 1957 with Westinghouse on the White Alice project (Alaska Integrated Communication Enterprise) a communication system for military & commercial subscribers. He met & married Doris Bennison, raising her three sons. At the end of two years he moved to Tacoma, WA. He purchased a Texaco station, then added an automotive service station & several more gas stations over the years. Doris predeceased him in 1977. The following year he married Lois Dodge who had a son & two daughters. He was hired by Hillhaven Corporation as the physical plant engineer at it's nursing homes nationwide. He was forced into retirement at age 70. Never idle, he bought the Cowlitz Motel near Toledo, WA, adding an RV park. Travis & Lois moved to Brookings, OR to be near her family. She died in 2002. In 2004 Travis married Betty Durham who had a son & two daughters.
Travis is survived by his wife Betty, sons David & Jim, daughters, Nancy & Beverly, step-sons Peter, Bill, Dick, Ken,& Dave, step-daughters Kathy, Susan, Cherie & Lynda, numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren & great-great-grandchildren.
The family chose to have Travis already interred.
A celebration of life service will be planned in the future, virus permitting.
Travis lived to be 100 years, 8 months & 12 days. Quite a feat for a man born at the end of the 1919 pandemic & passing from natural causes at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic.
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