Eldon Emil Korpela

Eldon Korpela was born in Astoria Ore., on March 17, 1927. He died on Oct 28, 2014. He was the son of Martha Keiske and Emit Korpela. He was a third generation gillnetter, and started fishing in his grade school days. His Columbia River experience started as a deck hand during the 1940 season, and lasted each year until 1947. During that year, a boat he was on exploded and burned, blowing Eldon overboard.
He had a new gillnet boat constructed while he was at Oregon State College, where he earned his degree in fisheries in June of 1950. During the fifties, when not fishing on the Columbia, he was employed on six occasions as a fisheries biologist by the Oregon Fish Commission in numerous investigations.
During the fall of 1958, he attended Oregon College of Education, receiving teacher certification in the spring of the following year. His first teaching experience was at the junior high level at Lewis and Clark from 1959-1966. During the 1963-64 school year, Eldon won a sabbatical from the National Science Teacher’s Scholarship to the University of New Mexico, where he received his master of science education degree. In 1966 he began teaching biology at Astoria High School until his retirement in 1985.
In 1973 Eldon started a fisheries program involving a salmon hatchery, using a spring-fed stream located fifty yards from the classroom wing. In 2010 he was honored for his dedication with the renaming of the building, now known as the Eldon Korpela Applied Science Center.
Eldon married Betty Erickson in 1950. She predeceased him in 2003. He is survived by his daughters, Kathy Glaser (Roger) and Sue Korpela (Patrick Whiting); two grandchildren, Kelly Glaser Schreiner (Mark) in Olympia and Matthew Glaser in Los Angeles; and two great-grandchildren, Lydia and Levi Schreiner.
He loved duck hunting at his duck shack with his “buddies” in Brownsmead, and skied with his family for years at Mt. Bachelor and Mt. Hood. He loved clam digging and crabbing on the Columbia River. He attended Oregon State and Astoria High School football games for many years.
Eldon and Betty enjoyed traveling and spending time with friends and family everywhere. They moved to West Linn in 1998 to be closer to their grandchildren. He spent the last 4 years of his life at The Pearl Memory Care center in Lake Oswego. The family wishes to thank the staff for all the loving care that Dad received.
Memorial contributions may be sent to the Eldon Korpela Scholarship Fund, Astoria High School Scholarship Inc., P.O. Box 598, Astoria, OR 97103.
A celebration of life will be held at the Astoria Elks Lodge on Saturday, Nov. 15, from 2 to 5 p.m.