William Ernest Graves, 92, of Seneca, passed away on Friday, July 12, 2024, in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 17, 2024, at Seals-Campbell Funeral Home in Marseilles. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Seneca with Rev. Kris Ann Zierke officiating. Burial will be in Mt. Hope Cemetery in Seneca with military honors.
Bill was born on November 18, 1931, in Morris, IL, to Forrest and Grace (Brown) Graves. The youngest of three children, he had two older sisters, Jean and Idella, and spent his early years in Seneca, IL, where he enjoyed riding his buckskin pony, Buster, and working on the family’s farm south of town. His father, “Forty,” who ran Graves Lumber Company, passed away when Bill was 12. His mother married Lester Minion, a Methodist minister in Chicago, when Bill was a freshman in high school. The family moved to the north side of Chicago, and Bill finished high school at North Park Academy. After graduating in 1946, he went to Michigan State University, where he studied Light Construction and Building Material.
He made the most of his college years, joining the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, serving as class treasurer his junior year and, as a senior, he was treasurer of his fraternity. He also worked on the yearbook, where he met his wife, Marlene Meyer. After graduating in 1954, he worked at an East Lansing lumber company for a year. He and Marlene were married on July 23, 1955, and later that year, they moved to Germany, where Bill was a Lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers. They bought a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, and on Bill’s 21-day leave, they drove it through Switzerland, Italy and Spain. They brought the car, as well as their dachshund puppy, Pfeffer, home with them on the USNS Upshur, when his service ended in 1957. They remained close friends with many of the couples they met in college and in Germany for the rest of their lives.
After a year in Davenport, IA, working at Valley Roofing and Supply Company, the wholesale division of Graves Lumber Company, Bill returned to Seneca and took over the family business, building their home on Main Street in 1960, next door to the house where he grew up. Like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather before him, Bill was community minded. He served as president of the Seneca Civic Association, helped with construction of the Seneca Pool, served on the Seneca Centennial Committee, and was an active supporter of the local chapter of Future Farmers of America.
For Bill, the family lumberyard wasn’t just a job. It was a passion. He felt a sense of responsibility to the community to provide high quality products at reasonable prices and derived great satisfaction from interacting with customers, many of whom became friends. He worked diligently to ensure that the lumberyard was an asset to the town, spending long days at the office. His strong work ethic was balanced with his robust sense of play.
In 1964, he and Marlene rented a cottage with his sister, Jean, and her husband, Gale, on Lake Geneva, WI – a defining moment in their lives. They bought a cottage of their own two
years later and embraced lake life. Bill delighted in learning to sail, socializing with neighbors, and waterskiing, waving gleefully at his three young children, Pam, Ginny and Jeff, as he sped in and out of the wake.
He developed a love of the outdoors as a child, and his enthusiasm for it deepened as he aged. He took numerous canoe trips to the Minnesota Boundary Waters with family and friends, reveling in finding his way through the labyrinth of islands, setting up a tidy campsite, and spotting moose, beavers, eagles and bears. He also embraced snow skiing, and it wasn’t long before annual ski trips to Colorado had become a family tradition – one that his children and grandchildren gratefully carry on to this day.
Bill took joy in small town life. He liked to pick up his mail at the post office, so he could chat with people in the community. He was kind. He was generous. He was helpful. He didn’t complain. Even as his health declined, he never lost his sense of humor. His rapid-fire one-liners, delivered with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, are the stuff of legend, as are his warm hugs. No one on the receiving end of his embrace could fail to be moved by his deep capacity for love.
He is survived by his three children, Pamela (Dan) Ribordy of Valparaiso, IN, Ginny (Gordon Wright) Graves of Fairfax, CA, and Jeffrey Graves of Cicero, IN; his grandchildren, Kent Ribordy (deceased), Kara Ribordy, William and Griffin Wright, and Megan, Madison, and Graci Graves; one sister, Jean Walker of Oakbrook, IL; and his long-time companion, Char Spiess.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Forrest Graves and Grace Graves-Minion; a sister, Idella Graves Chino; and his grandson, Kent Ribordy.
Please consider a memorial donation to The Leukemia Lymphoma Society or Graves Family Park in Seneca.
His grandchildren will be pallbearers.
Seals-Campbell Funeral Home
1009 E. Bluff St., Marseilles, IL 61341 815-795-5151 www.sealscampbell.com