NWA Francis L. DeVoll

~ IN MEMORY ~

Military veteran, NWA Francis L. DeVoll

November 6, 1924 ~ November 6, 2019

Notification with the passing of RNPA member retired Northwest Airlines Seattle based Manager of Flight Operations Francis Leroy DeVoll, age 95.  Widowed in September 2010 with the passing of his wife Evelyn Lorraine DeVoll, Francis is survived by their son Michael plus many other extended family members.

Obituary information may be viewed online at

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?n=francis-l-devoll&pid=194443029

Also at https://www.federalwaymirror.com/obituaries/francis-devoll/

Service arrangements are not known.

If more information is received we will be sure to pass it along.

Thank you,

~ Carol for the PCN

Obituary……….Francis DeVoll, age 95, passed away quietly Wednesday morning, November 6, 2019, at the Harbor View Adult Family Home. His son Michael had spent the day with him.

After graduating from high school in Madelia, Minnesota, Fran attended business school then followed the lead of many young men of the time and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He served in the 15th Army Air Force, flying 25 missions over Europe as a B-24 Liberator nose gunner. Thus began a lifelong love of flying. After VE day he was reassigned stateside to Buckingham Army Air Base at Fort Myers, Florida where he met Lorraine, his wife of 65 years who predeceased him.

Fran and Lorraine relocated to Minnesota where he finished school then took a job in 1947 with Northwest Airlines (NWA), feeding his love of flying and travel. This started a lifetime of travel adventures to all parts of Asia and later with Lorraine to Europe and Africa as well as continuing trips to Asia. After son Michael was born, Fran and Lorraine relocated to the new western hub of NWA in Seattle, Washington, where he eventually became Base Manager of Flight Operations and remained there until his retirement in 1989.

When son Michael was old enough to join the Boy Scouts, Fran took an increasingly active role at the troop and council levels. When Michael was in High School, the family arranged a private student exchange with Shinko High School in Kobe, Japan, hosting a student in their home. They were so impressed with the idea they founded and operated The Rainier Beach Cultural Exchange organization for ten years before turning it over to Rotary. The family loved to travel and did so extensively, at one time taking Michael out of school and traveling about the Asia Region for a month with no airline nor hotel reservations as they visited Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia and the Philippines.

Francis is survived by his son Michael of Richmond, VA (Harriet), brother Robert DeVoll of Union City, CA (Mary), and extended family. We wish to give particular thanks to the staff of Village Green Retirement Home, CHI Franciscan Hospice and Harbor View Adult Family Home.

Please direct memorials to The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave. No., Seattle, WA 98109

Published in The Seattle Times from Nov. 14 to Nov. 17, 2019.

E. Lorraine DeVoll

July 11, 1926 ~ September 26, 2010

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?n=lorraine-devoll&pid=145740090

Lorraine’s obituary in part…………….

Lorraine DeVoll, age 84, passed away quietly Sunday evening, September 26, 2010, at the local hospital. Her husband Francis and son Michael had spent the day with her. During WWII, Lorraine worked for the Army at Buckingham Army Air Base at Fort Myers, Florida, where she was born. It was there she met her husband and they began a life of travel with a 7-day Greyhound bus honeymoon to California to meet his folks and on to Minnesota. When Michael was old enough to care for himself after school, she took a job with the King County Library as the librarian at Skyway, followed by several years at their headquarters in Seattle. Lorraine served as a Den Mother when Michael started Scouting. When he was in High School, the family arranged a private student exchange with Shinko High School in Kobe, Japan, hosting a young lady, Kiyoko Tanaka, in their home. They were so impressed with the idea they founded and operated The Rainier Beach Cultural Exchange organization for ten years before turning it over to Rotary. The family loved to travel and did so extensively within the 50 States, Europe, Africa, Australia, the Orient, and at one time took Michael out of school and literally bummed about the Orient for a month with no airline nor hotel reservations as they visited Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia and the Philippines…………………….