Walter Ben Cadman

Walter Ben Cadman passed away on the evening of Saturday, July 20th, 2013.

Ben, as all knew him as, was born January 20, 1926 in Williamsport, PA to Roger and Trainee (Beeber) Cadman.

He was active in the Boy Scouts as a young man and ultimately earned the rank of Eagle Scout.

He joined the Merchant Marine in 1944 and until fall of 1947, traveled the world sailing on 11 different liberty ships and visited ports in 19 countries.

He started forestry school at Penn State University in the fall of 1947. While attending college, he took up archery and became quite good at it, and hunted for deer and wild turkeys in the forests of Pennsylvania.

Upon graduation in 1951, he was drafted into the Army.

The Army recognized his talents as a forester and put him into a mapping unit out of Virginia, then San Francisco, CA, where he met and married Beverly Gyland. They were married 1 month shy of 60 years when she passed away earlier this spring.

Once discharged, he became a forester with the Southern Pacific Railroad near Mt. Shasta for a few years. Ben then accepted a forester job with Crown Zellerbach and moved to Seaside, Oregon, where he started a family. In 1963, Ben accepted a transfer to CZ’s Tillamook office, where he remained for the rest of his career, eventually retiring in 1982. His crowning achievement was when he and another forester located a world record sized Western hemlock tree of over 9 feet in diameter. Unfortunately a large windstorm took out the top of the tree in the early ’90s. Ben moved back to Seaside in 1987 and built a new house, where he lived the rest of his days.

Retirement did not slow Ben down. He loved to travel and took many trips across the US and also abroad to Canada, Mexico, Europe, Jamaica, including a several months’ stay in Indonesia and Borneo checking on remote logging operations working government contracts.

He was always active volunteering with 4-H clubs, Boy Scout troops, and several camera clubs. He was a longtime member of both the Tillamook and Seaside Masonic Lodges, rarely missing a lodge meeting and also the Seaside Post of the American Legion. A lifelong photographer, he spent many hours in his darkroom developing film, printing and exhibiting his pictures.

Missing the sea, in 1992, he started volunteering at the Columbia River Maritime Museum. Over the next 21 years, he logged in 3,148 hours, most all of it on the lightship.

His biggest pride and joy became his orchids that he grew. He was an active member of the Sunset Orchid Society, and won many ribbons and awards for his plants. Ben became quite knowledgeable about orchids and loved to talk about them and show them off to anyone wishing to see them.

He was preceded in death by his beloved wife Beverly, and brother Richard. His four children Scott of Boise, Idaho, Skip of Astoria, OR, Sandra of Tillamook, OR, and Robin Meils of Livingston MT, survive him. In addition he has 1 granddaughter and 4 great-grandchildren in Tillamook, OR.

A memorial service is planned to be held for Ben on a later date.