Wincle L. "Lee" Coan died on July 25, 2016, at the Oregon Veteran's Home in Lebanon. He was born in Sardis, Texas, to Andrew J. and Edith Bennett Coan. He grew up in Texas where he obtained a pilot's license at the age of 18.
Lee served in the U.S. Air Force from 1946 - 1949 as a radar technician. He graduated from North Texas State University in 1953. Beginning in 1957, he worked at Rocky Flats Atomic Facility near Denver, Colorado. He later worked at General Electric in Livermore, California.
He married Kathleen Osborne Norris on Nov. 11, 1966, in Reno, Nevada. For many years, his occupation as an industrial insulator took the couple all around the United States before settling in Haines, Oregon. After retirement in 1991, they moved to Corvallis.
Besides his wife, Lee is survived by a stepson, Mark W. Norris (Nola) of Myrtle Creek; nieces and nephews Kathy Ferrell Hatch, Diane Palmer-Price, Dean, Dana and Don Palmer, all of Texas, and Jack Coan of Ohio; granddaughters Rebecca Norris Bradley of Portland and Deborah Norris Campbell of Myrtle Creek; and three great-grandchildren.