Obituary of Benjamin EASTRIDGE

OBITUARY FOR BENJAMIN RALPH EASTRIDGEAt age 96 Benjamin Ralph Eastridge passed away on June l9 at his Lake Havasu City home. He was born in Pendleton, Oregon on 11 October 1913, to Ben and Myrtle KnightEastridge. He grew up on the family ranch, attending public schools through high school. He attended Eastern Oregon Normal (now Eastern Oregon State University) for two and a half years, paying his way with handling freight at J. C. Penney Co. store and summer jobs as a farm hand.Switching from his ambition to be a teacher, Eastridge began full time work at the Pendleton J. C. Penney store, in 1933. Except for four years of army duty in World WarII, he devoted the next 39 years to the retail company. His career took him to San Francisco, Seattle, Pontiac, Michigan. and Los Angeles County, CA.Volunteering for duty after Pearl Harbor, Eastridge entered the army in 1942 as a private, and in 1946 retired as a captain. He commanded a platoon on D-Day, 6 June 1944, when his regiment formed the second wave of the assault landing on Omaha Beach, in Normandy, France. From then until VE Day in 1945, he served as a combat infantry officer in his regiment, the 115th Infantry, which suffered over 6,000 casualties. Married to Helen Anna Beck in 1951, the couple are parents of Edward R, of Scottsdale, AZ and Susan H. Arnold, main home in McLean. Virginia.He retired from the retail business in l972 to build a home in Lake Havasu City, then a new subdivision boasting a population of about five thousand. With experience from his working years, he filled volunteer jobs for the Chamber of Commerce, United Way, Community Presbyterian Church, and the Committee of Architecture, which oversaw building plans for the subdivision.In 1976 he joined a group seeking to make Lake Havasu City into an incorporated city. The group lobbied the state legislature for Senate Bill 1010, an alternate plan for incorporation of a development. Eastridge was elected chairman of the group in that year and led a drive to put the matter to a vote. The voters chose the incorporation plan in September 1978. Following the incorporation drive, Eastridge was appointed the first chairman of the newly-created Planning Board, now known as the Planning and Zoning Commission. Its members wrote the city code's zoning section, much of which is still in use. His other retirement activities included teaching business courses at the new Community College, and tending one of the city's real grass lawns, which gave way to crushed stone after a heart attack in year 2000.Services will be scheduled for a later date to celebrate his life.Thoughts and condolences may be submitted to the family at www.lietz-frazefuneralhome.comArrangements were placed under the care of Lietz-Fraze Funeral Home & Crematory.