Robert Silas Courville, 91, passed peacefully at his Clarkston home on Saturday, June 15, 2024. He was born in Snohomish, Wash., on June 3, 1933. He spent his childhood on his family ranch in Nespelem, Wash., where he grew up catching, breaking and selling wild horses to earn enough money to buy his school clothes and his dad a pickup truck.
He graduated from Nespelem High School in 1952, before starting construction work and moving to Warden, Wash. This is where he met the love of his life, Joan Schneider.
Shortly after he and Joan married, Robert served in the U.S. Navy from 1953-61. After the Navy, he worked on the many dams along the Columbia River as a batch plant operator. His next endeavor was in Alaska on the pipeline where he was a camp superintendent at Camp Tulik. When he returned home, he went into business with his wife and son starting C-Port Premix and C-Port Sand and Gravel. When they sold the companies, he and his son built Mr. Suds Car Wash and had other endeavors as well.
He loved to share stories and had a great sense of humor. He was an avid hunter and prided himself on his gardening abilities, producing the best tomatoes around and selling them at farmers markets in the area with his daughter. If he wasn’t doing one of these activities, he was busy helping others or enjoying a cup of coffee with his family and friends.
Robert is preceded in death by his parents, Rudolph and Vera Courville, his brother Tom and sisters Sharon, Kay and Yvonne.
He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Joan Courville. Also his brother, Chuck Courville; two children: Rob (Staci) Courville and Debi Courville; grandchildren: Jessica Hagler and Bobbi Jo (Brian) Williams; and his seven great-grandchildren.
A celebration of life will be held at a later date.
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