Walter Richard Worley, 85

Walter Richard Worley, 85, of Bonners Ferry passed away peacefully on March 14, 2014, at the Extended Care Facility, Boundary County Community Hospital.

A funeral service held on Saturday, March 22 at 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church with a gravesite service to follow.

Walter was born on Feb. 20, 1929, in Wolf Point, Mont.

He will forever be missed and remembered by his family, friends, co-workers and the many students that he taught during his tenure at Bonners Ferry High School.

Walter was born to Haskel and Maud Worley and moved with his family to Bonners Ferry in 1932. He graduated from Bonners Ferry High School and attended Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English.

Upon graduating from PLU, he returned to Bonners Ferry where he married Dona Schenck in May 1959. Walter began his teaching career by teaching English, speech and drama with a passion for the importance of teaching the language correctly and a love of English history and drama. Many a student will remember diagramming sentences on the chalk board and Mr. Worley’s dramatic renditions of Macbeth.

He left teaching for a period of time to pursue his entrepreneurial spirit of opening a small grocery store and custom meat-cutting business, the Farmer’s Market, at the Three Mile Corner.

Walt and Dona operated Farmer’s Market for well over ten years while he also served as a Boundary County Commissioner and a member of the school board.

Following the sale of the Farmer’s Market in 1979, he returned to teaching at the Bonners Ferry High School and became a seasonal employee for the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s as a customs officer at Eastport and Porthill, Idaho.

He continued as a full-time custom’s officer with the Federal government after his retirement from the Boundary County School District. He officially retired from all of his public serving duties on March 5, 1994.

Walter enjoyed many activities and hobbies during his lifetime, but none more than gardening. He was dedicated to his plants and trees and you could find him every spring or summer in his garden working on some new invention to make gardening more efficient and productive. He truly loved watching his garden grow and sharing the bounty with family, friends and neighbors.

He was preceded into heaven by his parents; his wife; his brothers Howard, Fred, Andrew, and Charles; his sisters Dorothy, Virginia, Dolly, and Joyce; his grandson, Brent, and many cousins, brother-in-laws, sister-in-laws, and friends.

Walter is survived by his brother Dale; his children Teri (Peter) Barnett, Gary (Monique) Worley, Brian (Lyla) Worley, Dawn (Mark) Barnard and Jeff Worley; his 14 grandchildren Sarah, Andrew, Michael, Carrie, Allison, Jennifer, Laura, Matthew, Michaela, Kathryn, Rachel, Cheyenne, Morgan and Victoria; and his 11 great-grandchildren. He is also survived by many nieces, nephews and extended family.

Family and friends are invited to sign Walts’s book at www.bonnersferryfuneralhome.com Arrangements are entrusted to the care of Bonners Ferry Funeral Home.