Alan G. Horton ’45, April 16, 1922 – June 30, 2014.

Alan G. Horton, 92, of Monmouth died June 30 in Monmouth. He was born on Easter Sunday in San Francisco to George and Harriet Horton. The family moved around until settling in Chiloquin. He graduated from Chiloquin High School and attended the University of Santa Clara for two years. He joined the Army Air Corp and served in the Pacific as a B-29 bomber mechanic for four years. He married his high school sweetheart, Frances Looseley, in Portland. They settled in San Francisco, where Alan worked as an airplane mechanic for United Airlines. They moved back to Oregon in 1954, and he worked with his father-in-law on their cattle ranch in the Airlie area south of Monmouth.

He graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in agriculture and soon developed a method for removing straw off the grass seed fields, being the first to do so in the Willamette Valley. Together with a few neighbors he started the Luckiamute Domestic Water Cooperative and managed it until his retirement in 1985. He served on the Polk County Extension Service Advisory Board and was a lifetime member of the Polk County Livestock Association. He and Fran joined the Peace Corps in 1985 and went to Belize, where Alan began a brand inspection program. After that they lived in Mexico for a year before moving back to Oregon, where they lived in King City for 10 years and returned full circle to Airlie in 1997. He was preceded in death by his wife, Frances, and daughter, Mary Alice. Survivors include his son, Chris (Joan) Horton; daughter, Paula (Darryl) Hines; four grandchildren; and extended family.