Charles Wayne Fryer 1923 - 2026

Born in 1923 in the town of Yamhill, Oregon, to fruit and filbert farmers, Charles, or “Wayne,” as he was known, started his life in the fields and the woods of the Willamette Valley. In nature, he developed a lifelong appreciation of Oregon lands and the tribes that first inhabited the Pacific Northwest. He always carried with him a rugged frontier spirit, romanticizing the days when the West was still wild, when his family settled in the territory generations before.

He graduated from Yamhill High School in 1941, after which he began work as a logger. He cut and delivered local timber and fuel, all the while becoming increasingly mechanically inclined, spending long hours working on cars and farm equipment. He later moved to Seattle with his brother to work for Boeing. As the country was drawn into the war, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served in the Pacific Theater through the war’s end.

Back home in the Valley, he became quite the handyman for neighbors and his community. He would frequent the local Safeway in downtown Newberg, where he would buy a banana, or anything he could, just to speak to Ruby Garrick, the clerk at the front. They were married in 1949. He began a long career as a driver for Darigold, from which he would retire. He bought land in the Dundee Hills with his brother, building a home for his growing family. It is still marked with his name today as “Fryer Hill Road.”

His curiosity never left him. He learned to fly and built an airstrip on his brother’s neighboring property, serving the Yamhill County Air Posse with his Piper Cub. He was fascinated by technology, accumulating old cars, cameras, and all manner of gadgets. He was the first in the neighborhood to own a television. He had more than a half-dozen horses and several mules he would take trail riding and backpacking with his sons and their friends. Elk and deer hunting, fishing, boating, and off-roading became seasonal necessities.

He felt most at home in the Wallowas, the mountains that brought him many fond memories through the years. He continued to bring his descendants to the mountains well into his nineties. For Wayne, being together in the outdoors was more important than what needed
to be said.

He was stoic and independent to the end, never letting age come between him and his freedom. After his centennial birthday, he said “Hearing aids? That’s for old people. I’m not old yet.” He leaves behind a family shaped by his independence, humor, quiet strength, and love of the outdoors.

He was preceded in death by his brothers, Robert and Walt Fryer; as well as his spouse, Ruby Fryer. He is survived by his children, Sherry Johnson, Chuck Fryer, Susie Schatz, and Mitch Fryer; as well as many grandchildren; great-grandchildren; extended family; and his closest friend in his last years, Betty Bowe.