Dexter Frank Lall

Dexter Frank Lall of Royal City died of a heart attack on Tuesday, March 29, 2011, in Las Vegas, Nevada while on a road trip with his wife Peggy Jane Lanphere.

Son of Evan and Alma Anderson, Mr. Lall was born on August 26, 1932 in Everett, WA. He was a graduate of Lake Stevens High School.

Mr. Lall served as a radar technician in the U.S. Navy aboard an LST during the Korean War. He graduated from the University of Washington School of Fisheries in 1958.

Soon after graduation, Mr. Lall started working as a commercial fisheries biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife. He remained at that post for 13 years.

Mr. Lall went on to a career with Peter Pan Seafoods and retired as plant manager in 1992. He moved to Royal for his retirement.

Mr. Lall became familiar with the Royal Slope as a college student. He came here often to hunt pheasants and ducks.

One year he and his wife saw a property they thought would be the ideal place to retire and purchased it in the mid-1980s. Turning his bit of the desert into an oasis was one of the joys of his later years. He planted many types of trees on the property and nurtured them through the years.

Mr. Lall is survived by his wife Peggy Jane Lanphere; Son Evan and his wife of Olympia, WA and their children; Daughter Daria Lall of Vancouver, WA; Sister Noreen Thompson of Wickenburg, AZ; and several nieces and nephews.

A private family ceremony will be held in the fall on Whidbey Island, where he will be laid to rest. In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations in his name to the American Diabetes Association.