Frank Turpin

Frank Turpin’s life spanned 92 very full years, yet he would probably sum it up in just two words: family & fishing! 

Frank, known as “Turp” to almost everyone, was born, raised and lived most of his life in northern Idaho, and from a very early age he spent every moment he could beside the mountain streams and lakes near his childhood home of Smelterville, Idaho with a fishing pole in his hands.  Often accompanying him on these outings was the little girl from the house next door, Lois Leamy, and during their youth this friendship grew to be much more, resulting in a 1947 marriage that lasted nearly 72 amazing years.  Soon their sons, John Louis (Louie) and Richard James (Dick), joined Turp and Lois in their love of the outdoors and fishing; family & fishing!

Even Turp’s early working life was centered around the outdoors, as his first significant job, beginning as a very young teenager, was as a lumberjack in the woods that he loved.  During the northern Idaho winters, most local lumberjacks traded their saws for a mining pick working in the nearby silver and lead mines, so Turp chose a related path and became trained as a master electrician, providing power to the mines.  Turp and family eventually moved away from the lumber and mining area of northern Idaho, living in Washington state and Utah, then returning to northern Idaho’s university town of Moscow, during which he worked on large scale construction of hydroelectric dams, large educational buildings, and even intercontinental missile bases.  It was at one of those missile bases that Turp found himself involved in the 1962 “Cuban Missile Crisis”, a 13 day confrontation between the USSR and America, because he was apparently among the few trained at that point to actually launch from the recently completed secret base.  Turp and Lois moved to New York’s Hudson Valley in 2006 to be near son Louis, his wife Julie and their three daughters, Sarah, Amanda & Alissa, where their favorite pastime soon became watching their three granddaughters compete in various sports for the Rhinebeck High School Hawks.

In addition to the love-of-his-life Lois, and Louis’ family, Turp is survived by his step-brother & wife Jack and Verna Durick & family, brother-in-law & wife Walter and Michele Leamy & family, and niece Chris Mael Holden & family. 

After a private family service on Monday, October 8, Turp and Louis will be returning to Idaho together, where Turp will, once again and forever, be gone fishing….

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