Obituary of Donald Edward Tupper

Donald Edward (Ed) Tupper December 7,1933 to September 17, 2021 Donald Edward (Ed) Tupper, 87 passed September 17, 2021, at his lake cabin in Rockford Bay, Idaho. Ed Tupper was born in Nez Perce, Idaho, on December 7, 1933, the fifth of six children born at home. His mother was a nurse and his father a farmer. His father’s family had homesteaded to Idaho years prior. He was raised on “the farm” where he attended a one-room schoolhouse located on the Tupper property. The family sold the farm and moved to Spokane, Wash., about 1945. He graduated from West Valley High School in Spokane. During his teen years he was employed for a theater company in Spokane. He continued after graduation mostly running the projectors at the Dishman Theater and being an usher at the Trent Drive-In Theater. He also attended engineering courses at Gonzaga University. Right after high school he started working for Armour Meat Company. He worked for Armour for a total of twenty-eight years, first working at the Spokane plant and then transferred to the plant in Portland Oregon after the Spokane plant closed in the early 70s. He started as a butcher in Spokane and progressed to being responsible for the seasoning of their “Hickory Farms” products. He had a two-year break from Armour in 1956 -57 to serve in the US Army in which had learned to fly airplanes. Ed purchased property on the Coeur d Alene Lake in 1965. He gradually built a lake cabin on the property, going out on weekends and vacations to work on the property. It was mostly completed before he was transferred from Spokane to the Armour plant in Portland. In 1975 - 76 he attended Mt Hood Community Colleges Aviation Pilots’ program and obtained his private pilot’s license. In addition, he earned his instrument rating pilot’s license which allowed him to fly in inclement weather conditions. His pilot’s license allowed him to go from Portland to his lake cabin in Idaho on the weekends and vacations without the long drive. At first, he rented planes until he was able to purchase his own six-seater Cessna 206 aircraft. He enjoyed his Cessna 206 for years, taking friends and family “up” in the air for sight-seeing or short excursions. After he sold his airplane, he enjoyed traveling by going on cruises, Hawaiian trips and many road trips with family and friends. After retiring from Armour, he was able to move to his lake cabin in Idaho. He was always busy with miscellaneous handyman jobs for friends and family, working for the Rockford Fire Department as a volunteer, making “brackets” in his workshop and was even employed as a fry cook at the Coeur d'Alene Casino. Ed is survived by his wife, daughters, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, as well as his sister Mary Brady of the Seattle area, and Art Tupper of Spokane, Wash. He was preceded in death by his parents, Irene and Clarence Tupper, sister Barbara Hunter, brother Bill Tupper and brother Robert Tupper.