Earl A. Packer

Earl A. Packer 86 of Missoula passed away Tuesday Nov. 8, 2016 at St. Patrick Hospital.
Earl was born December 9, 1929 in Ord Nebraska. He is the son of Hiram Russel and Elizabeth Ena (Riess) Packer.
Earl’s family farmed the sand hill area of Nebraska. In 1945 the family left the farm and moved into Kearney Nebraska.
Earl graduated from Kearney High School in 1949.
In 1951 he was inducted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He served his tour of duty overseas in Okinawa. He was honorably discharged in 1953.
After his discharge he moved to Montana to attend Montana State College. It was while he was in Bozeman that he met and married Patricia (Tucker) Packer, May 29, 1955. They celebrated 62 years of marriage. They lived in several locations in Montana; Missoula, Great Falls and Billings.
He worked as a mechanic and service manager for DeMarois Motors. In 1963 he joined the U.S. Forest Service. In 1972 he transferred to the Federal Aviation Administration. He was with the FAA until his retirement in 1990. He worked for the government 29 years.
The last five years he worked and lived in Anchorage Alaska as a construction supervisor for the FAA. He got to do a lot of traveling.
Upon retiring in 1990 he and Pat bought a motor home in which they lived and traveled for 14 years. Besides traveling the lower 48 states they enjoyed trips to Hawaii, Australia, and Canada and took several cruises. They gave up the motor home in 2004 when Pat became ill and settled in Missoula.
Earl was preceded in death by his mother and father, 4 brothers Glenn, Allen, Milton and Robert 1 sister Gertrude.
He is survived by his wife Patricia, son David Kent Packer of Everett, WA and daughter Nyla Jean Shaw and son in law Mike Shaw of Florence, MT; 4 grandchildren Jeremy, Jason, Shane and Mariah Packer of Lakewood, CO 1 great granddaughter Harper, and 1 brother Dean of Wenatchee, WA.