Mary Elizabeth ‘Beth’ Bartel
June 10, 1943 – Sept. 17, 2022
Royce ‘Rusty’ Martin Bartel
July 28, 1935 – Sept. 21, 2022
“Yes, dear, let me get my hat.”
Mary Elizabeth Bartel (nee Price) passed peacefully at home Sept. 17, 2022 with her husband and family at her side. Beth passed from complications due to Parkinson’s disease. She was born in Greensburg, Pa. to Harold and Ann Louise Price.
Beth left Western Pennsylvania for California in 1963, and worked her way up the proverbial career ladder when there weren’t many female role models. A single mother with three small children and armed with only a high school education, but with plenty of grit and loads of common sense, Beth enjoyed promotion after promotion in her 35-year career.
She went from a telephone operator for her local utility company in Pennsylvania to executive finance positions across Silicon Valley.
Royce Martin Bartel followed his bride everywhere. Three days after his beloved wife’s passing, Royce joined Beth in the early-morning hours of Sept. 21, 2022. He passed from complications due to Alzheimer’s Disease. Royce was born in Nelscott, Ore. to Alvin and Dora Bartel of Creswell, Ore. and was raised on the family farm on Sears Road.
Royce attended Creswell schools and earned the rank of Eagle Scout. At 13, he traveled by train across the country for the first Boy Scout Jamboree following World War II.
He matriculated to the University of Oregon (go Ducks!) and earned a bachelor’s degree in science.
Following college Royce joined the Air Force and left for England, where he was stationed at RAF Bovingdon. Royce proudly wore his RAF Bovingdon hat and loved to share stories of his time in England, where his eldest daughter Beth was born in 1959.
Royce’s family of three soon became a family of four when daughter Brenda arrived in late 1962. By that time he was working at Boeing in Seattle where his love affair with aircraft and flying continued.
Royce spent his 40-year career in procurement at defense companies across Silicon Valley, and while at United Technologies Center was part of the team that helped launch the Tomahawk, Minuteman and Titan rockets.
Royce and Beth met in 1971 at a Parents Without Partners dance, and never stopped dancing. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2021. They retired and moved back to the family farm in Creswell where Royce and Beth built a new home and spent more than two decades enjoying their community and friends in Creswell.
Life marches on – Royce and Beth sold the family farm in 2019 and moved to assisted living. In the middle of the pandemic, with no end in sight, they left their assisted living facility in Hillsboro, Ore. and relocated to their daughter’s home in San Jose, Calif.
The last two years of their lives were spent close to family. Royce and Beth passed from this life the same way they lived: comfortably and always together.
Royce and Beth are survived by their four children, Beth Bartel of Santa Clara, Calif., Brenda (Joseph) Boylan of Beaverton, Ore., Robin Carbone (Darrell Evans), and Patrick Salandro (Leanne), all of San Jose, Calif. They were predeceased by their beloved daughter, Christian Danella. They are also survived by their son-in-law Brian Danella (Dr. Kim Allison) of Woodside, Calif. and nine grandchildren: Ben, Nichole, Cody, Jason, Madeline, Madeleine, Henry, Enzo and Matteo.
Services to be held Saturday, Nov. 12 at 11:30 a.m. at Creswell Presbyterian Church, 75 S. 4th St., Creswell, Ore. Reception and lunch to follow in the church’s Fellowship Hall. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research or the Alzheimer’s Association.
