Blocked

                   "Orville Jackson (Jack) Imel received his education in Picher, Oklahoma and graduated from Picher High School in June of 1942.  Jack played the trumpet and was First Chair in the Picher High School band. He also formed his own "swing band" which played for high school dances and other events.  Jack was also active in high school dramatics and won many awards for his music, as well as his participation in high school dramatics.  Jack married his high-school sweetheart, Garland Wood, on graduation night - they were both 17 years of age.  Jack had enlisted in the US Navy on 08 December 1941 due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on 07 December and the US entering into World War II.  However, the Navy held up his enlistment until Jack graduated from high school and reached his 17th birthday - both of which occurred in June of 1942.  After reaching his 17th birthday, the Navy sent Jack to San Diego, California where he completed his basic training.  He then was transferred to Treasure Island in San Francisco, California to await orders to go to sea. Garland, in the meantime, had gone to visit her parents in Picher, Oklahoma, where she filed for divorce. Garland and Jack were divorced before he shipped out to sea. Garland was just too young and homesick to survive the war and separation from her family.  Jack served as a Signalman during the years of World War II; and was discharged in 1946 when the war ended. After returning to his parents' home in Portland, Oregon, his sister, Sally, introduced him to her high-school friend, Virginia DeBunce.  Jack and Virginia were married 13 July 1947.  After his marriage to Virginia (DeBunce) Imel, in 1947, Jack Imel became interested in photography and furthered that career under the tutelage of Virginia's father, Boyd DeBunce, in Walla Walla, Washington.  Jack and Virginia later moved their family to Lewiston, Idaho where they owned their own photography studio for several years. In January of 1968, Virginia Imel became terminally ill with multi-myeloma (bone cancer) which resulted in her death in 1968.  Virginia and Jack Imel owned Imel's Studio at 703 8th Avenue in Lewiston, Idaho.  Their studio was later moved to their home at 636 7th Avenue.  Virginia was a past president of the College Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association and Lewiston PTA Council.  She was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints.  She had been president of the LDS Lewiston First Ward Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association and had worked in the Sunday School program.  After the death of his wife, Virginia, Jack married Carol Porter and adopted her two sons by a previous marriage.  Jack then sold his photography studio and became Vice President and Corporate Production Director for the Tribune Publishing Company. He was responsible for coordinating production between the Lewiston Tribune, the Moscow Idahonian, the Palouse Daily News and Graphic Arts Publishing Company of Boise, Idaho and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jack Imel continued his employment in this position until his death.  Upon his death, the following Letter from the Editor appeared in the Idahonian newspaper.  "I am burying a newspaper colleague today.  Jack Imel, production director for the Tribune Publishing Co., had survived enough heart attacks, cardiac arrests and bypass operations in the past dozen years that we began to think he was damn near indestructible.  Deep down we all knew better. Especially Jack.  And Wednesday night, as he lay in Lewiston's St. Joseph's Hospital, struggling to recover from his sixth seizure, the seventh became a killer.  Each cardiac onslaught sapped his energies a bit more.  But he'd bounce back, returning to work weeks ahead of doctor's orders and opening a pack of those forbidden cigarettes the moment he left hospital scrutiny.  Jack Imel was a tough, courageous little guy, who decided to make a career change in his 50s.  And I prompted it.  He was Chief of the Tribune's photo department when I became executive editor in 1977.  As a technician, a manager of people, an innov
ator who strove for greater efficiency and better ways of doing things, he was a pro.  But as a photojounalist, he made a great pilot, (which he was).  So I transferred the somewhat upset photographer to head of the graphics department and two years later, with Imel's relunctant approval, I urged Publisher Butch Alford to appoint him overall production director.  At age 55, he put down his professional cameras for good.  As a space-age production czar, he was sensational.  He dedicated himself to his work - literally night and day when the new but troublesome offset printing press was installed and again when the computer era hit. There wasn't a time on the clock when you would have been surprised to see his 5-4 frame scurrying through the plant, ensuring the awesome pulsating machinery of daily journalism was running as it should.  Employees loved him.  He represented well those many non-byline folks whom readers never know about but who are the vital organs of newspapers.  It seems unfair, upon reflection, that as the Tribune's mechanical heartbeat became healthier under his cardiological skills, Jack's human heart was weakened.  Jack Imel gave the Tribune all of his final seven years of life.  It probably killed him, but he would have died earlier had he not.  He loved his job and being in the thick of things.  He was despondent only when temporarily confined to a hospital bed.  He knew better than most what the 92 year Alford tradition of newspapering means and made certain the torch remained lit.  You'll have to excuse me now.  I must bury a colleague and friend.  And then we must all carry on.  Jack Imel would not condone standing around longfaced. There is tomorrow's edition to publish."  (Writted by James E. Shelledy, Editor and Publisher)."

"Orville J. (Jack) Imel, 59 corporate production director for the Tribune Publishing Co., died at St. Joseph's Hospital about 9:35 Wednesday night after a series of heart attacks.  Imel, a former professional photographer and member of the Tribune staff for 14 years, had suffered a half-dozen such attacks in the past 12 years and had twice undergone open-heart surgery.
He was stricken again March 12 and was treated at St. Joseph's until March 20 when he was dismissed.  He returned to the hospital for additional treatment last week and was dismissed again Sunday.  He was stricken again Tuesday night at his home while preparing a barbecue dinner for his family.  Imel operated his own photography studio at Lewiston before going to work for the Tribune part-time in 1971 as a photographer.   He was born June 29, 1925, at Parsons, Kansas, the son of Orville and Blanche Imel.  He grew up at Picher, Oklahoma, and served in the US Navy from 1942 until 1946, including duty in the South Pacific.  He was a radio operator/signalman on a Merchant Marine ship and also played trumpet in a United Service Oganization (USO) band.  After World War II, he attended aircraft mechanics school at Hillsboro, Oregon for two years.  He then worked as an aircraft mechanic, as a hardware salesman and in the laundry and dry cleaning business.  He moved to Lewiston in 1956 and was associated with his father-in-law, Boyd DeBunce of Walla Walla, in the operation of the DeBunce photography studios at Lewiston and Walla Walla.  Two years later, he bought the Lewiston portion of the business and established Imel Studio.  He continued to operate his commercial studio for a time after going to work for the Tribune in 1971, giving it up after he became a full-time staff photographer.  He became manager of the Tribune's graphic arts department in 1975 and was promoted to production director in 1979.  He was named a corporation production director in 1982, coordinating production between the Tribune, the Moscow Idahonian, the Palouse Daily News and Graphic Arts Publishing Co. of Boise and Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Imel and his family were vacationing in Oregon in June of 1972 when he suffered the first two of several heart attacks.  He underwent heart surgery a month later, on July 11, at Portland's Good Samaritan Hospital but complications developed and he had surgery again three days later.  He had been plagued by intermittent heart problems since then.  Imel was married to Virginia Rose DeBunce in 1947 at Portland.  She died September 3, 1968, and he married Carol Porter May 28, 1969, at Enterprise, Oregon. She survives him at the family home.  Imel organized the Banana Belt Water Ski Association and was an Amateur Athletic Union-sanctioned boxing judge.  He was a member of the Greater Lewiston Chamber of Commerce Aviation Committee and had been a member of the Lewiston Lions Club, the Lewiston Jaycees and the Lewiston Elks Lodge.  He was a former president of the Washington Photographers Association and a former vice president of the Tribune Credit Union.  Survivors in addition to his wife are daughter, Jacque Haener of Lewiston, and seven sons, Blair Imel of Virginia Beach, Virginia, David L. Imel of Spokane, Donald Imel of San Diego, California, and Bruce, Todd, Kent and David A. Imel, all of Lewiston; his parents and a sister, Sally Junker, all of Portland; and 11 grandchildren.  The funeral will be conducted at 2 p.m. Saturday at Malcom's Brower-Wann Memorial Chapel with the Rev. J. Stanley Lyman officiating.  Burial will be at Normal Hill Cemetery."