Russell Clifford Crook

Russell was born in Smyrna, WA, after his father waved the Milwaukie Road train engineer down to tell him to have the doctor come out so he could help deliver Russell, near Royal City, WA. He grew up in Green Valley, near Yelm, WA, and later Yakima Valley. They lived on a dairy and he attended Yakima Valley Academy.

He was married at age 18 to Ann Noe and they had two sons, Wayne and Bill. He later married Patricia Norris at age 24 and they had a son, Albert.

He and Pat started out with a small dairy and raised calves and hauled sweet corn. He farmed in Yakima valley for 6 years and was in Army for years during the Korean War.

He moved to Royal Slope in 1965 and and he and his father bought an orchard on O’Sullivan Dam Road. He also farmed row crops, and he gradually became known for his ability to work on and adapt farm equipment, to what was needed. He built one of the first apple tree limb trimmers in the area, and built a cherry picker using a hydraulic system to power it before any were available commercially.

He custom hay farmed from mid 1970’s to 1987 with his son and family. Most of the last few years of his farming life was doing custom harobedding from Royal Slope, and from near the Columbia River to Moses Lake Area. He volunteered at Grant County, WA, Fire District #11 for 22 years, in later years doing maintenance work on the Fire equipment in Royal Camp.

He and his wife enjoyed wintering in Southern California from the 1970’s. They moved to near Desert Aire, WA in early 1990’s, and in 2006 to Mead, WA, where he and his wife lived until his passing, after long illness.

He is survived by his wife, Pat Crook, living in Mead(Spokane), WA and sons Wayne, living in Cedar Grove, TN, Billy, living in Gentry, Arkansas and Albert, living in Coeur d’ Alene, ID.

A memorial, celebrating his life, will be on Friday, Sept. 25, at 11 a.m., at Othello SDA Church at 736 E Elm Street, Othello.