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The funeral service for Harry Charles Macfarlane will be held at 3 p.m. Friday at Slawson’s Chapel of the Valley in Grants Pass. A salad/dessert potluck reception will follow at the Roguelea Estates clubhouse.

Mr. Macfarlane, 89, of Grants Pass, died Monday (July 1, 2002).

He was born May 3, 1913, in the remote canyons of the Rogue River at Illahe. His pioneer family moved from property at Big Bend into Grants Pass when he was 4 years old. He started first grade at Riverside School and graduated from Grants Pass High School in 1930. A motorcycle accident as a young man left him an amputee.

Mr. Macfarlane started the first flying school in Grants Pass in 1935 and was Oregon’s first leg amputee pilot. He enjoyed flying Travel-Air bi-planes, many of which he built from scratch in his shop. He taught aviation mechanics at the Eugene Vocational School, and all of his students subsequently went on to work for Boeing Aircraft Co.

In 1943, he moved to Alaska, where he was bush pilot for Wien Alaska Airlines. He returned to Oregon for the birth of his first child.

In 1944, Mr. Macfarlane built his first crop-dusting airplane and started Rogue Air Service. Most of his business was conducted in the Willamette Valley and Roseburg areas. He also flew in the states of California and Arizona. During the mid-1950s he owned and operated the Albany airport, where he taught many to fly and continued his crop-dusting business.

After nearly 40 years in the aviation business he retired in 1972 to take up gold mining. For 20 years he pursued his interests in hydraulic gold mining.

Mr. Macfarlane enjoyed entertaining his friends at the Lucky Joe Mines with tales of "Hathaway Jones," known to be the biggest liar in the United States.

Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Renee, Grants Pass; a daughter Kathy Larsen, Boise, Idaho; six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a daughter, Karen Walker.

Arrangements: Slawson’s Chapel of the Valley, Grants Pass.

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