Earl Holzknecht Jr was born in Missoula, Montana in 1927. The third of Laurentine and Earl Sr's four children. Growing up, everyone called him "Junior" and he hated it. Time passed as time does in Montana and Earl joined the army in 1945. He was trained in mapping and surveys at Fort Belvoir outside Washington, DC, and was eventually stationed in the Philippines. The path to promotion in the army was through Korea, so he stayed a Private and ultimately went off to meet his future wife, Marie, at Montana State University. They met on a blind date, and the first words Marie heard after opening the door were "Don't drop dead, I'm Earl". Marie was a couple years ahead of him, studying to be a teacher and it turned out that Bozeman, MT was just the right distance from both sets of parents. Earl studied engineering and architecture as diligently as he studied Marie, and they were married Aug 23rd 1950—a marriage that lasted until Marie's passing in 2016. Together they moved to the atomically small town of Dutton, MT to work and live at a lumber yard while raising the first two of eleven (ELEVEN!) children—and it took six tries before they got their first of only three girls. After a fairly short stay in Dutton, they were offered two choices: go east and work for the railroad, or go west and work in lumber. The job in lumber won, and he moved to Seattle, where nobody called him "Junior". Also, because of the move west, there are a large number of grandkids and great grandkids who are thankful just to exist. After years of studying the lumber trade, its tricks, and best practices, Earl opened Woodinville Lumber in 1970—a year in which 13 Seattle-area lumber yards went out of business. He used to say they'd "happily deliver two sticks just to have the sale" back then. The company grew and thrived for decades, and Earl eventually retired to try out these "hobbies" he'd always heard about.

The early years of marriage, say, the first 30 or so, were all about raising decent people and doing their best to provide "3 squares and a pad" to whoever was in the house, related or not. Later, Earl and Marie got to do some traveling. They found the Elderhostel program (now called Road Scholar) and went on educational vacations for the older crowd. They went to Fiji, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hong Kong, and a bunch of "I cannot picture my 70 year-old parents there" places. There's a picture of Marie next to a halibut she caught that's larger than her. And Earl was featured on the front page of newspaper the day he and two friends skipped Elderhostel class to go fishing.

Earl was a man of God and a man of joy. He greeted everything and everyone with a smile and little laugh. He had a real motor in him, too, always busy with his hands or working at his desk—unless it was nap time. And nap time could be any time; he occasionally fell asleep while on the phone. Earl could stretch the length of a cup of coffee to infinity, but especially on Christmas, when him finishing it meant the kids could finally open presents. Because of Earl, Marie, and their children, there was a Holzknecht at Bothell High for almost 50 years straight. On a side note, he loved soup. He connected with a well-made soup, and preferred to eat it (and everything else) with a very large spoon. There's a life lesson there someplace.

He was man of real strength and showed by daily example what hands and hearts can do in the service of Jesus Christ. We are better for having known him. We are happier for having him in our hearts. He leaves behind more than 80 direct descendants, who grieve his loss but know with absolute certainty he's in a place of joy and love. And with Mom there, probably Pep Drink, too. Ask one of his kids about that diabolical health drink.

A funeral Mass will be held Wednesday, September 1st at 11:00 AM, St. Cecilia's Catholic Church, 26900 78th Ave NW in Stanwood.