Walter George Marchel

11/19/1946 - 10/18/2025

From Ryan Marchel's Facebook page.  Thanks to Steve Dixon for sharing.  

Early this morning my dad took his final breath. He passed away three days before his 58th wedding anniversary and a month shy of his 79th birthday.

For many of you who didn’t know, my dad Walt had been battling Alzheimer’s disease for the last 9 years. As cruel as the last eight years have been to my dad and our family, we were fortunate enough that he still knew who we were until the bitter end. Although Alzheimer’s is a horrific disease that strips away the memories and destroys the cognitive ability of our loved ones, it on its own does not take their lives. For the last few decades my dad has also been fighting heart disease. In the end, his congestive heart failure, coupled with inactivity from losing all ability to enjoy all the many things life has to offer, caused his body to shut down.

Walt is survived by his wife Judy, his younger brother John and sister Beth and of course me, my wife Kate and his two grandchildren Trystan & Kiera who he spoiled and adored.

I would love it if those of you reading this post could share a personal story of my dad that you encountered while he was with us. If you have pictures share those as well. It can be a joke he told you, a funny story, something else amusing or something serious and special. The subject matter and length are not important. Any contribution would be meaningful to myself, our family and everyone who gets to read it. If it’s personal or you don’t like to post publicly (I can relate) just DM me instead of posting it here. We do not plan on holding any type of formal remembrance service so this post and hopefully the many stories shared will serve in its place. I will make this public for all to see so feel free to invite others to this post to share their stories as there are far more people who he touched then I have contact with.  [Note:  Ryan's email is rmarchel@gmail.com if you wish to share a personal story about Walt.]

Those of you with a little more time or attention:

Long post below 

My dad was many things to me and so many others. As a life long middle and high school teacher he affected the lives of thousands of impressionable children and growing young adults. He loved being a teacher that brought him so much joy. Before teaching and then over the summer breaks while a teacher he ran a charter boat and took thousands of people ocean charter fishing on one of the many boats he captained over the years. Being on the ocean was probably his ultimate passion he got to actively participate in.

His greatest passion outside of teaching and the ocean was NHRA drag racing. As a young adult he got hooked after drag racing locally with a team of friends. He later became an avid spectator as well as an active volunteer with Newport High School’s drag racing club/team. There he got to spend many weekends driving or towing the race car to and from the Woodburn Drag Strip. All the while again working with kids on his favorite passion. Drag racing became an annual trek for him and I to go watch the closest national race to us which was in Seattle (Kent) every year. We were able to do this nearly every year through the 2024 race season. Grandpa started taking his grandson, Trystan to this event every year as well. In 2018 this passion paved the way for Trystan to enter the sport via driving a Jr Dragster with other kids. Grandpa was the crew chief that set up and tuned the car. Unfortunately, as the disease took stronger hold I had to take over much of Grandpa’s responsibilities by the end of the season. Nonetheless, we all got to share in these fond memories.

His second passion behind drag racing was Oregon State Beaver athletics… GO BEAVS! Specifically football . Yeah I know, they’ve had some terrible seasons over the years and we are currently seemingly trying to set a new record with our winless season so far . He took me to the Ducks vs Beavers Civil War rivalry game nearly every year growing up. Later in life I started taking him to more Beaver Football games when we could. Lots of fun tailgating memories with family and friends. Two of the pictures above are of us at what became one of his last football games in 2023.

He had a great sense of humor and loved to tell stories. Even before Alzheimer’s got the better of him he had several fond stories he would tell us all over and over again. He used to always tease me growing up and when he could get away with it as an adult too. It was always in good nature but it used to drive me nuts growing up. He did the same thing with his grandkids and of course I always found that humorous. Oh how I miss that so much since he has slipped away over the years. He had an infectious laughter and I could still get him to laugh even as late as this summer. I’m crying now as I type these words thinking of how I already miss his laughter. Unfortunately, I have not been able to have a meaningful conversation that he participated in for many years, so getting him to laugh helped fill that void in my heart.

He was the best dad growing up and I have so many fond memories of all the joy he has brought me over the years. Did he make mistakes, handle things in a bad manner and or otherwise do things wrong at times… Absolutely! We are all human so was he, so it happens at times. As a parent I am continually faced with challenges so I now have a greater understanding for the few slip ups over the years. My dad was a great role model and I have learned many positive traits from him that have helped me become a good father to my children. And those less favorable times in the past have helped shape some of the areas I know I want to improve so I thank him for that as well.

I’ve had many fond memories flood my mind of my childhood the closer my dad neared the end. I bring this up because I think the teacher in him is trying to teach us all one last lesson. We all know we have a limited amount of time while living. None of us know exactly how long we have, but we can all agree it's very limited even if we live to 100. All of us with children have an even shorter amount of time while our children are young and still live under our roofs. There are only so many summers, Christmas’s, youth sports seasons, family vacations, etc before they are out on their own.

One of the reasons I have so many fond memories of my dad is because my dad took time to be invested in my life. Most of the fond memories I’ve been thinking about lately seem somewhat trivial like throwing a football, a baseball with me, or even shooting hoops. Driving me to the store so I could buy some dumb thing I had my heart set on. Taking me to a place and telling me the history about it (History teacher). *Disclaimer - the history part seemed stupid as a child but I became to cherish it as an adult* He once surprised me with a busted up go kart that he fixed up. He then had to haul in and out of his truck and drive miles away from our house to vacant parking lots where I could safely drive it because our steep gravel driveway at home was a definite no-go. So he knowingly committed to this project which caused him to give up even more personal time so I could get the enjoyment out of it all. These are just a few examples of the memories that I’ve been flooded with through this time.

Back to the lesson - Showing up:

Showing up for your kids can be incredibly difficult after a long day, or on a day off when trying to take a break, or work on house work, or a personal project. Time and time again my dad said yes, he would do the thing with me I was asking for. It was always his time that I wanted and cherished. Looking back I don’t dwell on the physical things I had or didn’t have but the memories I was provided by getting to spend time with my dad. With a teenager and a tween in my house I am often ignored as their friends are of much higher value. This means the fewer times they do ask me for my time I must jump and seize the opportunity before they stop asking. This means even if I’m tired, not feeling 100%, or when I already planned to work on my own thing. I must rearrange my priorities and capture the opportunity. I know from the gifts of time both of my parents gave me, my children will feel the same way. Just ask, ask your kid(s) to list things they appreciate about you on your birthday or Mother/Father’s day. I think you will be surprised at some of the small ways you show up for them that actually mean so much to them. I know when they told me a few of the things they appreciate that I do, some were easy for me and paid big dividends in their hearts. So you really never know what it’s going to be so you have to keep showing up even when it’s hard.

I feel this lesson transcends to everyone. Being a parent or not this is applicable to anyone in our lives. How often have you declined a friend's invite, or failed to ask a friend or family member to do something because it was just a little uncomfortable or the timing wasn't perfect? Maybe your house was a little messy and you were embarrassed or you just didn’t feel like driving to meet someone.

I’m here to kick you in your ass and tell you to get out there and spend time with other people. This is what life is all about folks! I hope my close friends and family would feel I often show up and am active in their lives when they want or need me. Even if they are so kind to think that I know there is still even more I can do to show up. I can be taking action and doing more on my end to initiate these connections. Don’t wait, take action! Like with my kids who are currently preoccupied with everything, but mom and dad right now… I/we have to create little daily/weekly experiences to connect with our children in some active way. Even 5-15 minutes with them can have lasting impressions. As I’m typing this my son came to me asking for my help. He recently acquired a record player and is still learning the ins and outs of this old physical analog technology. He noticed it was making a hissing noise while listening to a record and he wanted me to help him troubleshoot it. My dad just died, I’m in a flow typing this manifesto and yet I stopped everything because I chose to and helped him since he came to his dad in need. This is what we must do even when it’s uncomfortable. The same goes for the needs of our friends and loved ones.

Take time to be present with everyone you are blessed with to be in your life. I promise you it will create lasting memories that you and they will later be thankful for.

Since this is already the world’s longest post I’m going to continue…

Lastly, don’t give up!

Dealing with the loss of a loved one is one of the most difficult setbacks we will unfortunately continue to encounter in life. There are many other day to day challenges at work, school, home, financial, etc that come our way that cause us to pause or worse, give up. We have to keep moving forward. It would be an understatement for me to tell you today has been incredibly difficult. That being said, I was supposed to go on a run this morning. I’d be running by myself but it was a personal commitment I made to myself. I really really didn’t want to go. Remember my previous lesson about showing up for others… Well we gotta show up for ourselves first. Yeah, it's hard, it sucks and I easily could have given myself a pass. I talked myself into it because I remembered the times my dad and I worked-out together growing up and later as a young adult when I still lived nearby. I also find that running allows me time to reach into my mind and think about things in a way I often don’t get elsewhere. So I was able to turn this dreaded commitment I didn’t want to do into an opportunity. I could freely think about my dad and all my fond memories with no distractions. It was this run that ended up allowing me the time to think about writing this post that you are reading. This was 100% not planned. If you’ve been on my Facebook page in the last several years you know that I rarely post anything. Most of you can still track some of my life events through Kate’s posts of our family from time to time no thanks to my efforts. So here I am getting out of my comfort zone writing nearly a book because I don’t know how to say it with less words. How I handled my personal commitment of running today is not right or wrong. If I gave myself a pass today I would have just picked where I left off tomorrow but I would have worked hard to make that happen. That too would be acceptable in my book as I would still accomplish my commitment just a day later after basically just rescheduling it.

How many times do you take a rain check with yourself or someone else and never get it on your calendar and actually do it at a later date? I know I’ve fallen victim to this many times. Today though I said no, I’m not giving up, if my dad was here he would encourage me to prevail. Honestly, he would be pisssed or sad if he knew he was the reason I chose to give up on a personal commitment. 

Actually take a moment to really think about the lesson I’m doing a lackluster job trying to convey. There’s a lot of parallels between showing up and not giving up. Yourself and others depend on them for well being. Your memories and legacy depend on them. To many me tooting my horn about my run example makes me look like I’m some kind of great role model. I can assure you I have missed way too many opportunities to show up for myself, my family, my friends and my employees or coworkers over the years. I am no saint, I just picked one good example. I have to work on this as hard as the next person. Since it was top of mind for me today and I’m trying to focus on being present in the now and the future it felt so fitting in my time of grieving.

Thanks to everyone who stayed with me till the end of this manifesto. This tells me you care about me and or you were really bored and either way I am thankful I was able to occupy your time. Don’t fear being swept into another one of my long posts, unless someone is wild enough to request I make another post in this decade I’ll probably be signing off once again.