Terry Easton Strickler peacefully left the world Wednesday, March 25, 2020. It is believed his mother, Mabel, swung down in her Cadillac to give him a ride to the pearly gates.
Terry’s journey through life was a winding one full of many friends and many more stories. Too many to share now, but he loved to tell them.
Terry was born July 16, 1941. He was a lifelong resident of Lewiston; in fact, the running joke among us kids is we couldn’t get him to leave the valley to visit for longer than a week or two because he loved it so much. However, summers during his last few years were spent in Elk River, doing things no man his age should have been doing; but that was kind of the story of his life. He loved his morning crosswords, coffee, Gonzaga basketball, Idaho football and camping in Elk River. Terry was an adventurer. He drag-raced cars, flew in biplanes and traveled Route 66.
Terry’s life had a full reach into the community that many of us didn’t realize until talking about his passing. He was a dad, uncle, teacher, coach, mechanic, bartender, small business owner and, in his mind, one of the greatest comedians ever. He was a mentor and an educator. He loved teaching and coaching and was lucky enough to foster amazing relationships with students and athletes he held to this day. But most of all, he was a friend to everyone with whom he came in contact.
He graduated from Lewiston High School in 1959. He then went to the University of Idaho, where he claims he left on his own terms. None of us in the family ever believed him with the stories he told about the time spent there. He ultimately graduated from Lewis-Clark State College in 1968. He obviously was a man ahead of his time, taking the nine-year plan through college, which shocks none of us. Even though he didn’t graduate from the University of Idaho, it was always his first love in football. He would stand loud and proud and sing the fight song to anyone who would listen. He sang it to us on one of his last days.
After college, Terry married Donna Sonner, in a ridiculously short period of time, had four children who he is survived by: Tim, Sean and Kenny Strickler and Lisa Curry. He is also survived by his nine grandchildren whom he adored, and they adored him. Following the unfortunate end to his first marriage of many years, he struggled with figuring out how to commit for a long time. We think he liked the idea of marriage, he just wasn’t really good at it.
At his “retirement home,” the Huddle Tavern, you could see him laughing, hugging, crying and maybe even wearing a tiara on any given night with people he considered family. Terry Strickler will be remembered by a lot of people as someone who was just simply a good friend and a guy who would listen to you. Doesn’t sound like much until you don’t have a guy like that around anymore. We will celebrate his life at a ceremony to be planned when the world becomes normal again.
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