Dedicated to Carl Glen Devin (1933-2008)
On February 19, 2008, one of the original and primary contributors to Devin Timber quietly passed away while having his morning coffee and reading the morning newspaper. Carl Glen Devin, age 74, always had an interest in his family history. He would not call himself a "Genealogist," but his efforts have made the task of researchers into the Devin and collaterial families much easier.
He wrote his first manuscript about his Devin family in 1954 while attending University of Idaho at Moscow Idaho. It corrected and added later information to a manuscript written about 80 years earlier. In the early 1970s, he edited and got published a book written by his father, Ira Holmes Devin about the pioneer life of Nathaniel Madison Devin and family in the early years of Wallowa County Oregon.
In the mid-1980s, he was the driving force behind entering the entire manuscript "The Devin Family" compiled by Dessa DEVIN Hofstetter into PAF. He and his wife, Patricia, spent hours manually typing and checking the names, dates, and notes into that early DOS program. They shared that file with other researchers, and those researchers, in turn, made their changes and shared the results with friends, Rootsweb, and World Family Tree. His effort in keeping that PAF file current and corrected allowed me to use the file as the original source for Devin Timber. Our legacy is to continue to improve the knowledge our family history and share what we learn, just as Carl did.
Carl continually contributed to Devin Timber by photocopying hundreds of primary documents for scanning and photographing every family tombstone he could find. It is going to take years to get Devin Timber caught up with all of the material he helped to gather. He took it upon himself to link the available cemeteries and tombstone pictures to the individual's records in Devin Timber.
In the early 2000s, Carl wrote his autobiography, "Nine Out of Ten is not Bad." His great-grandchildren will read his book and know the person that was their ancestor. He also researched and wrote about the Corman Road area in Longview Washington, where he built his house in 2000.
Carl left behind two uncompleted projects:
- He was researching early Deer Creek Canyon in Wallowa County Oregon. Deer Creek was where the original frieght road from Enterprise Oregon to Lewiston Idaho passed before the current highway was built. As a very young boy, his family moved from Day Ridge Oregon to Culdesac Idaho along that road. The trip comprised some of his earliest memories.
- Carl's second project was to re-edit and create an electronic version of his father's book that he helped to get published in the early 1970s. On his computer screen, on the morning Carl died, was the first editable text version of the original typed manuscript.
Carl died just before his application to join the Sons of the American Revolution was submitted. Carl was inducted in the Republic Chapter, Oregon Society, Sons of the American Revolution by Memorial Membership on September 20, 2008. Carl was an active member of the Rotary International and firmly believed in "Service above Self."
My father's efforts and encouragement are sorely missed.
