Clyde Robert Garrard

After an honorable discharge from the Army, Bob continued studies at the University of Utah where he earned the title of middleweight boxing champ in his spare time. Bob graduated from Thunderbird School of Global Management in 1950. It was during his summer breaks that he became employed as a smokejumper with the U.S. Forest Service in McCall, Idaho, beginning 1949 through 1951. He bought a Taylorcraft plane for private transportation. Bob rallied some smokejumper buddies to take his plane up one Sunday for some recreational “jumps.” When it was his turn, Bob’s chute failed to open—twice. He landed waist high in water and knee deep in mud in the shallows of the Cascade River, uninjured.

Bob married Bette Jean Diggs, a brown-eyed beauty of McCall, on August 26, 1951, in Winnemucca, Nevada. Their friends hosted a reception upon their return to Shore Lodge, where Bob had first spied his fair lady working at the front desk of the lodge.

An energetic, people-person, Bob was an avid salesman. He sold Compact vacuums door to door in his newlywed years. Following the birth of his and Bette’s first daughter, Michele Jean, in Utah, employment took the Garrards to the Mount Hood area; then to The Dalles, Oregon where Melody Lynn was born; then to Boise, Idaho where Kelli Ann arrived.

Portland, Oregon became the family’s home for multiple years, where Bob began his long career as an Allstate Insurance agent. At his request, the company transferred him to Newport, Oregon, where he was the first Allstate agent in the county; he manned several offices and drove countless miles to service his insureds. Life insurance sales earned him many company sponsored trips in and out of the United States.

Bob was active in the local Newport community. He was a charter member of the Yaquina Optimist Club; PTA president at the former Lincoln Junior High; board member of the Agate Beach Water District; and helped start the adult education program (now OCCC) in Lincoln County.

In 1984, Bob & Bette opened Ocean House in Agate Beach—the home where they had raised their three girls since 1965. It was the first bed and breakfast in Lincoln County. Bob loved to work in the garden of the oceanfront property; enjoyed photography; made an outstanding Belgian waffle chef; and was a great support to Bette, a prolific artist. Besides running the bed and breakfast, he was a tender caregiver to Bette, bedridden in her last years, who passed away in 1994.

After retiring from Allstate and then Ocean House, Bob was invited on a safari/tour of South Africa by a childhood buddy; he also had the pleasure of housesitting his friend’s estate for a time in Boca Raton, Florida.

Ever the explorer, Bob toured the U.S. in his shiny Forest River RV sometimes solo and other times with family. It was during one of these trips in 2008, that Bob met and married vibrant Gloria Gay Neves, a writer and artist, from Utah. Bob gained an extra-large family who thought the world of him and, he, them. He and Gloria Gay lived in several places before returning to the Salt Lake area. Sadly, Gloria Gay passed in 2014.

In 2015, Bob and his sidekick golden lab retriever, Rusty, moved “back home” to Oregon; they lived in Siletz, at the homes of two of his daughters and their families. He loved animals and was gifted a yellow lab pup, Bolt, for his 90th birthday. In 2021, it was necessary for Bob to move to a care facility. The staff at Mountain Park loved him and his gentle spirit.

Bob was preceded in death by his first wife, Bette; his last wife, Gay; his parents; sisters (and spouses) Maurine McKean, Claudia Lawrence, and Ardis Green.

Survivors include brother, Archie B. Garrard, Huntsville, Alabama; daughters: Michele (John) Robinson, Newport, Oregon; Melody (Jon) Friton, McMinnville, Oregon; Kelli (Scott) Albright, Siletz, Oregon; sister-in-law, Kay Diggs, Boise, Idaho; four beloved grandchildren: Lou Friton, Katey Townsend, Emily Hawes, and Elizabeth Albright; three precious great grandchildren: Eli, Azalea, and Luke Townsend; many nieces, and nephews; stepdaughter Carrie (Tony) Pearce, Alpine, Utah; and extended stepfamily members in Utah and Arkansas.

A celebration of life will be held in the spring at Sacred Ground Baptist Church in Siletz, Oregon. In honor of his memory, be blessed… and pass it on.