William S. (Bill) McCready

Bill McCready lived a full and productive life from May 1923 to February 12, 2004. He passed through transition with his family and friends by his side on at age 80, following a short illness resulting from complications following hip replacement surgery. He had broken his hip when his motorcycle fell on his leg (which he was still riding weekly)!

Bill McCready was born in Lewiston, Idaho on May 7, 1923, and he grew up in Lapwai, Idaho. He was the son of a prominent pioneer family, Allen and Ethel McCready, whose members were some of the first settlers in Idaho. Several towns including Riggins, Spalding and Booth Idaho were named for his ancestors. He grew up with many close friends among the Nez Perce Indian tribe. He had two half brothers and two of his nieces are folk singer Judy Collins and well known TV personality, Lois Collins.

After high school, Bill entered the US Coast Guard and was stationed in Garibaldi, Oregon during the Second World War. He was a chief machinist mate and operated on motor whale boats protecting the Oregon coast during the war. He met his first wife, Eleanor, in Rockaway in 1943 and had two children, William F. “Bill” McCready of Carlsbad, California, and Trudy Ann Logan of Salem, Oregon.

Bill met and married Virginia Cherry, the love of his life August 7, 1992. His second family was a great joy to him. He often remarked how wonderful it was to have such a great second family that included Michael and Diana Cherry, (Arizona), Dan Cherry (Portland), and Cyndi and Erick Gabriel (Gresham). He is survived by numerous grand children from both marriages.

He was an entrepreneur and his career was totally focused on tool and die work, engineering and inventions as well as model making. At the end of WWII, he opened his first business, El-Mac Machine Company specializing in automated equipment for the logging industry. In the sixties and seventies, he was the chief designer and builder of the high tech manufacturing equipment for zirconium, hafnium, niobium and cadmium furnaces at Teledyne WaChang in Albany, Oregon. These materials were used in developing missile nose cones for Poseidon missiles at the same time his son was a Nuclear Submarine Officer. Because of their Top Secret security clearances neither knew what the other was doing at the time.

He later moved to Gladstone, Oregon and again opened a high tech machine design and development business that focused on automatic production equipment for McCullough Chain Saw, Ford Industries, Code-a-Phone and Boeing among others.

Bill’s real love and creativity came to the forefront in his model making. He had a full sized machine shop in his garage where he designed and built 1/8 inch, live steam locomotives, live steam donkey engines and a host of other models. Many of his engines can be seen on local train layouts at Willow Creek in Brooks, Tom Miller’s in Scholls and Shady Dell in Molalla. He built his first model steam engine in 1937 and pursued that hobby for the rest of his life, building eleven steam locomotives, many with his long time friend and builder Bas Pascoe.

Bill was described as a great guy who could always be counted on as a friend. He was always available to help anyone anytime. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

A Memorial Service was held on March 21, 2004, 3 PM at Central Christian Church, 1844 SE 39th Avenue, Portland, OR 97214.