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From the high seas to desert
Tamarra Green
Aubrey Strong is a proud Navy man.
Aubrey Strong, a longtime resident of the Quincy Valley, is known to a lot of people around here. If they don’t know him from church or as the former employee of Coast to Coast (now Gates True Value), they might know him from when he worked at Martha Inn Truck Stop.
Strong was born in 1921 in Gaylord, Ore., about 10 miles inland from the beach. He grew up with his sister, Pauline (Strong) Van Dyke, and brother, Alfred. When he was 12, the family moved to Santa Cruz, Calif. for a short time before they returned again to Oregon. During the Depression, his father was making railroad ties to earn money and hunted to put food on the table for his family. “When I was a child and went to school, I wasn’t allowed to write with my left hand, but I just couldn’t break the habit,” said Strong. He remembers also eating bean sandwiches at lunchtime, which he continued to do off and on for years.
The family worked and lived on a dairy farm in Myrtle Point, Ore. His job was to take the cans of milk to the creamery and feed the animals before school. Strong graduated from Myrtle Point High School in 1940. He was working at the Flying 8 gas station when he heard President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announce the attack on Pearl Harbor. Shortly after, in May of 1942, Strong joined the Navy. He was assigned to the USS Selfridge, a destroyer which was named after Rear Admiral Thomas O. Selfridge.
His travels with the Navy took him all over the world during WWII. They went to Australia and then Guadalcanal. The Selfridge headed north to the Solomon Islands, where they engaged a Japanese fleet of six ships. The Selfridge was hit by a torpedo and they had to bring the ship into port. Strong was brought back to Boston, where he transferred over to the USS Topeka. The ship was noted for being the first one to attack Japanese soil in 300 years. He remained with the ship until the end of the war, and was in Tokyo when the Japanese surrendered on the USS Missouri.
Strong was discharged and returned to the family farm in Gaylord, where they began a logging operation. He injured himself and was unable to do heavy labor. “I was wondering what I could do, so I heard about a Bible school in Portland and decided to attend,” said Strong. He attended Pacific Bible College in Portland. According to Strong, the college had strict rules. When he arrived with his brand new 1949 Ford, they made him turn over his keys until he was through with his schooling. While he was there, he met his wife, Rosella Harrison, and they were married on June 7, 1953.
Their first child, Kim was born in Cottage Grove, Ore. in 1958. In 1959, Strong was invited by his uncle, Charlie Brown, and his aunt, Edith, when they founded the town of George. He spent some time there until work took him to Post Falls, Idaho. Son, Todd, was born in 1962 after a move to Post Falls and finally the youngest daughter, Lisa, came in 1964. At the time, Strong was working as a gas station attendant at a Texaco there and Rosella was a homemaker.
Strong returned to George to run the Martha Inn truck stop, while his wife went back to school to obtain a teaching degree. In 1977, Merle Royer offered Strong a job at Coast to Coast Hardware in Quincy. He remained there until his retirement in 1991.
Strong is proud of his family. His daughter, Kim, is a finance specialist at Lamb Weston. Lisa is a registered nurse in Moses Lake and his son, Todd, is a Nazarene minister in Ridgefield. He treasures time with grandchildren, Melissa and Sarah Hawes, Chris Strong, Megan Cordova and Cameon and Abby Strong. He also has three great-grandchildren, Madison and Noah Hawes and Aubrey Rose Strong.
Strong loves the Quincy community and its people. He enjoys collecting everything about the sea, with his collection including ship paints and a metal ship sculpture, as well as other items. “I guess you could take one look around my place and tell I’m a Navy man,” he commented.
