Obituary of Arthur Harry Mills

Arthur Harry Mills was born on October 10, 1930 in Merrill, Oregon to Daniel William Mills and Helen (Lapointe) Mills. The youngest of two children, Arthur was predeceased by his brother, William Burton Mills of Santa Ana, California. Arthur’s wife, Alice Mary Jane (Bobier) Mills passed away in August, 2017. As a child, Arthur lived in Oregon, and later in Missoula, Montana until age four when his mother Helen died. Shortly after, he was sent to live with his aunt, Yvonne G. (Lapointe) Bourgeois in Nelson, BC, Canada. At around age fifteen, Arthur went to live with his father in Medford, Oregon. At age 20 he joined the US Naval forces in Korea. After being honorably discharged in 1954, he returned to Nelson, BC, where he worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway. During this time he met his future wife, Alice. The couple married at Nelson’s Cathedral of Mary Immaculate in October, 1955, after which they moved to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where Arthur worked as a welder for Kaiser Aluminum in Trentwood, and then at Bunker Hill in Kellogg, Idaho. Employed at various times by the City of Coeur d’Alene, he also managed Art’s Rainbow Gas Station on 4th Avenue and Wallace, and served as commander of the local VFW post. In March, 1957, Arthur and Alice’s only child, Daniel, was born. The family relocated to Medford, Oregon in 1962. Here, Arthur was employed by Sears-Roebuck as an auto shop mechanic, and later as an appliance salesman. Four years later the family made its final move to Portland, Oregon, where Art worked as a lumber broker for North Pacific Lumber. He later opened a waterbed store where he crafted his own waterbed frames and headboards. Art and Alice operated “Wood N’ Art, Etc.” an arts and crafts store located in the Westmoreland neighborhood of southeast Portland. In later years, Art worked as a food and a vacuum cleaner demo associate for Costco. A lover of antique cars, Arthur owned a 1930 Model A Ford Coupe, which he fully restored, and a 1964 Cadillac convertible. He enjoyed bowling on the VFW bowling team in the 1970s, and fishing the creeks and streams in and around Nelson, BC. Arthur died at home in Portland of Alzheimer’s complications on October 28, 2009. His and his wife Alice’s ashes were interred at Willamette National Cemetery on September 22, 2017. After his death, these twelve handwritten aphorisms were found on a small piece of note paper in his wallet: I walk the world in wonder. A smile is a curved line that sets things straight. Life is a mirror: if you frown at it, it frowns back. If you smile, it returns the greeting. A smile is the light in the window of your face that tells people your heart’s at home. Only one type of worry is correct: to worry you might be worrying too much. The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you’ll make one. Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb—that’s where the fruit is. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. A single sunbeam is enough to drive away the shadows. Every mountain means at least two valleys. If you haven’t all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don’t have that you didn’t want. Remember, there is one thing better than making a living, and that’s making a life. Donations in Arthur’s memory can be made to the American Alzheimer’s Association, the Alano Club (Portland), or the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars).