MOSCOW Ralph A. Morton, a retired machinist who worked on the Panama Canal, died of causes related to age Tuesday morning at Latah Care Center at Moscow. He was 93.
He was born June 29, 1900, to Ralph and Frances E. McDowell Morton on the family homestead south of Moscow.
He attended the Snow Country School and moved with his family to San Diego in 1908. They lived there for three years and returned to Moscow in 1911. In 1916, they sold the family farm along what is now the Zeitler Road area and returned to California.
He worked as a machinist in the San Pedro (Calif.) Boat Works for 20 years. He also worked as a machinist on the Panama Canal from 1940 to 1946.
He married Bessie Ashcroft Nov. 19, 1927, at Yuma, Ariz. She died in 1958.
He was a skilled craftsman and retired as a master machinist in the late 1960s. He returned to Moscow in 1971.
He married Alice Lundquist, a former schoolmate from the Snow Country School, March 26, 1971, at Moscow. She died Feb. 4, 1987.
An avid reader, he also enjoyed train travel and was a member of the Moscow Senior Citizens and the Balboa Masonic Lodge A.F. & A.M. in the Republic of Panama.
Survivors include a niece, Marilyn Harden of Moscow.
A brother, Frank, died previously.
Visitation is scheduled from noon to 9 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday at Short's Funeral Chapel at Moscow.
A graveside service will be conducted at 11 a.m. Friday at Moscow Cemetery, with the Rev. Gordon Braun of Emmanuel Lutheran Church at Moscow officiating.
The family suggests memorials be sent to the Emmanuel Lutheran Church or to the Latah Care Center therapeutic pool fund.