Preston Harley Challender was born on January 22, 1924 and passed away peacefully at the age of 101 on January 24 2025. He is now reunited with his beloved wife, Claudine. He is survived by four children, Sharlene (Wayne), Ronald (Marie), Kathleen (Steve) and Lyne (Mike) and a large and loving family of grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Claudine, grandson Steven (Sharlene and Wayne), grandson Andrew (Lyne and Mike), and twin grandsons, David and Matthew (Ron and Marie).
Preston grew up in Western Washington, primarily in the Vaughan and Gig Harbor areas. He was part of a large family with six brothers and sisters. His father passed away when he was very young leaving his mother with seven children to raise. They worked hard and also had many fun times growing up. His mother married again and providing for seven children became a little easier.
Preston and Claudine met at Geiger Field in 1942 in Spokane and were married within two months. They had the incredible blessing of 71 years in a loving marriage.
Preston served in the Navy during World War II, completing his basic training at Farragut Naval Station in Idaho. He served at bases on Whidbey Island, Edenton, North Carolina, Norman Oklahoma and others. During his time in the Navy he mostly worked as an aircraft mechanic. Just as the war ended he was assigned to the ship Rendova.
After being honorably discharged from the Navy he began working as an aircraft mechanic at Fairchild AFB in Spokane. As time went on, he started working for Jensen-Byrd Wholesale Hardware as an industrial salesperson with accounts of all sizes in the Spokane area. He retired after 38 years with the company.
Preston’s family and friends knew him to be a steady, clever and wise man. He was an innovative problem solver who could build and fix just about everything. He would remodel several homes and rental properties. Preston built a wonderful family lake cabin on Bead Lake in Washington. The entire family have many fun and fond memories of swimming, hiking, skiing, huckleberry picking and just having fun at the lake.
He and Claudine were avid rockhounds which made for fun adventures for the family in many localities, Idaho, Oregon, Canada, Washington and Montana to mention a few. They bought a motorhome and enjoyed traveling to California and Nevada as well as local areas.
Preston was an amazing storyteller, and was telling stories with his sharp wit and memory throughout his life. Having lived 101 years, he had such interesting stories to tell, like finally living in a house with electricity and water after years of not experiencing that. Other important milestones were the building of roads for cars, flying in airplanes, radio, the first TV, and the list goes on and on. When home computers became available he quickly learned to use them, selling items on Ebay, sending emails, writing letters and researching online. What an amazing time to live in this world! What incredible things he witnessed!
Preston and Claudine are missed by this large family every single day. What a blessing and joy that we all had them in our lives for so many wonderful years.
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