Gary Wolgamott
SWISSHOME — A celebration of life will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 22, at Swisshome Evangelical Church for Gary Joe Wolgamott of Swisshome. He died March 15 in a homicide at age 55.
He was born Aug. 17, 1952, in Nampa, Idaho, to Joseph and Mary Ann Wolgamott. He married Lori Jensen in 1972 in Mapleton and they later divorced.
Wolgamott graduated from Mapleton High School in 1970. He worked as a Caterpillar operator for many years and worked as a river guide on the Siuslaw River and in Alaska.
Survivors include his mother; a son, Joshua of Walton; three siblings, Kenny Wolgamott of Crooked River Ranch, Dee Wolgamott of Elmira and Rick Wolgamott of Swisshome; and four grandchildren.
Above is the obituary for my friend Gary. I went to his Celebration of Life on Saturday and it was very emotional. The one good thing about it was that the facilitator said “This is not over, but today we are going to celebrate Gary’s life and nothing else”. The Church was packed to capacity, even flowing out the door. Gary was such a loved and admired person. It started with a eulogy by his school mate Brian M., then it ended with people standing up and telling stories about times they had spend with Gary. In almost every story it was about fishing with him as that was Gary’s true passion. The first slide shown in the slide show was a picture of Gary and Frank in the drift boat and the crying started for me at that point on. After the Celebration I left and went to Frank’s house to tell him about the slide and I got to see all my little kitties that I left behind at his house and then I hugged him……….damn.
1 comment:
im not sure if this will reach anyone, but im a grandchild of Gary and coming across this brought me to tears. The memorial is so vague yet so vivid in my memory, but being able to know that this moment was documented like this, is such a blessing. I thank you wholeheartedly for giving this. You have no idea the closure this gives me. I was 10 when he passed and just turned 24 and finally in a place where I can process the grief that was always there, but never touched.
anyway, thank you again, for both posts about him. Getting to know that other people saw my grandfather was well liked and looked up to in regards to his fishing, fills my heart with such light and love for him. I know that if things had been different and he was here, I'd be able to know him and see him the way the little town of Mapleton saw him.
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