Feb. 20, 1919-March 22, 2003

PENDLETON – Recitation of the Rosary for Tillman “Till” Stone will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Bishop Funeral Chapel in Pendleton. A celebration of life gathering will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at the funeral home.

Mr. Stone, 84, of Pendleton, died Saturday, March 22, 2003, at his home.

He was born Feb. 20, 1919, at Walla Walla, to Dave and Herman Stone. He spent his childhood on the family wheat farm near Adams, and attended elementary school at Adams and Athena. When he was 15, he enrolled at Hill Military Academy in Portland, and upon graduation enrolled at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

In January 1942, he enlisted in the Air Force and served as a staff sergeant in Trinidad in the British West Indies for approximately two years. In 1944 he returned to the United States and enrolled in officer’s training and upon completion was assigned to flight school in Missouri.

After training, he was commissioned as a B-17 bomber pilot and assigned to the 8th Air Force Command in England as a lieutenant. He flew 36 missions in the European Theater.

After World War II, Mr. Stone returned to Portland where he was employed as an auditor for the Internal Revenue Service. He later transferred to Pendleton. In 1947, Mr. Stone went to work for the family business Gillanders and Burroughs Inc., which held business interests in wholesale groceries, timber, cattle and farming in Umatilla and Morrow counties. He continued as owner and general manager for the next 26 years.

In 1972, he retired from Gillanders and Burroughs and returned to school to learn real estate appraisal. He acquired certification by the National Society of Real Estate Appraisers and opened a firm in Pendleton. He continued his appraisal practice and managed the family farm until his retirement in 1989.

He was an active member of the community, serving as president of the Columbia River Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, worked with the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce, Red Cross, Rotary, Elks Lodge and was a past president of the Pendleton Country Club.

In 1949, he married Barbra Brown. The couple were married 39 years before Mrs. Stone’s death in 1985.

In 1987, Mr. Stone married Elizabeth “Bette” McGowan.

Survivors include his wife, at the home; the Stone children, David Stone of Bainbridge Island, Wash., Marianne Stone Fisher of Antioch, Ill., and Tillman J. Stone of Hillsboro; the McGowan children, Margo McGowan of Richland, Marcy Bishop of Caldwell, Idaho, Robert McGowan of Ellensburg, Wash., Mary Morrison of Marysville, Wash., and Gordon McGowan of Boulder, Colo.; and eight Stone grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Anthony Hospice Care or St. Anthony Cancer Center, directly or through Bishop Funeral Chapel, P.O. Box 325, Pendleton, OR 97801.