Douglas M. Stoneking

Douglas MacArthur Stoneking passed away quietly Wednesday, December 16th, 2020 after a long battle with salt addiction. He was born on August 13th, 1942 in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, to Clark and Cecile (nee Weeks) Stoneking. He was the youngest of his siblings Velma, Jim, Cecilia, Carol, Harry, and Sally. The family owned a resort on Medicine Lake, Three Lakes Wisconsin that young Doug helped maintain and work, setting out the boat docks in the spring; prepping the boats, motors, and fishing gear; airing the cabins, running the rust out of the water lines; greeting the resort guests; and acting as fishing guide on the Northern Wisconsin lakes.  He grew up hunting and fishing in the great forests of his home state occasionally interrupting these activities with encounters with bears, raccoons, wolves, ospreys, and blueberries. Doug was employed as a pin setter at the Three Lakes Bowling Alley as his first job outside the family business. Growning up, the Wisconsin winters were hard on little Doug as going to the one building K-12 school was accomplished by trudging  5 miles to and from school, up hill, both ways, in snow as high as his belly button ,….. in August.
Implored to leave high school by his counslors and teachers as he was “too smart to stay another year”. In November of 1961 he joined the United States Air Force and received training as a Fire Controls Technician (acronym NERD).  Doug married his High School Sweetheart, Jane Karen Adamovich, November 24th, 1962. They moved to Victorville, California with Doug stationed at nearby Edwards Air Force Base. In May of 1964, Doug found great joy in the birth of his first child, a son, a handsome, well mannered infant named Kurt Russell. After three years his squadron commander implored Doug to leave the Air force as he was “too smart to stay another year”. Doug found employment with GM in Ohio, and then with Skiaky Brothers of Chicago, Illinois. Doug’s work with Skiaky was as an electronics Technician working on electron beam welders which were used in the growing Aerospace industry. So …… he basically got the first man on the moon. Work with Skiaky took Doug to far way places like Los Angeles, Japan, Sweden, and North Chicago. On August 23rd, 1966 Doug and Jane welcomed their first daughter , Crystal Lynn Stoneking . Truly a joy to behold, beautiful, and smart.
Doug and Jane relocated to Torrance, California in 1968. There Doug continued his work in the Aerospace industry and he an Jane brought forth their 3rd child, Robyn  Joy Stoneking. Poised, intelligent, and outspoken, Robyn was the perfect rounding to the Stoneking tribe. The family grew in southern California where many lifelong friends were made and Doug began his crusade against household and automobile air conditioning and children wearing sunglasses. In 1976, Doug moved his family to Oregon to get out of the Los Angeles grind and into a cooler climate. Little did he know that in a few short years the warmer climate would find him in his northern escape. The move to Oregon renewed Doug’s love of the outdoors. The family could be found camping, fishing, hiking and on trips to the coast or on a stern wheeler exploring the Columbia Gorge. He settled in Aloha, Oregon in the family home that he eventually would pass in.
Doug is preceded in death by his wife, Jane, and his grandson Bryce Allen Stoneking. He is survived by his children Kurt Russell Stoneking, Crystal Lynn Stoneking, and Robyn Joy Greene; his grandchildren Kaylea Anne Marie Watkins, Amanda Briana Stoneking, Jocelyn Rae Rivera, and Megan Lynn Greene; and four great grandchildren; Addison, Kinsley, Ryker, and Warren. The family has held a private service in an air-conditioned room while wearing sunglasses and will announce a celebration of life in the near future.
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