William Carrico

Glendive, Montana: William Noel Carrico, age 90, entered into rest on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at the Eastern Montana Veterans Home in Glendive. A Graveside service with military honors will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Saturday, October 1, 2011 in the Dawson County Cemetery in Glendive with Celebrant Sandy Silha officiating. Silvernale-Silha Funeral Home of Glendive has been entrusted with the arrangements. William (Bill) was born on January 29, 1921 in Sidney, Montana, a son of Noel Felix Carrico and Christine Finkelson Carrico, he joined sisters, DÂ’arline Ezrene Carrico Olson, Elaine Sondrine Carrico Moody, and one brother, Frank Charles Carrico. He grew up in Glendive, Montana and attended Dawson County High School where he met his future wife, Lucille. Bill served in World War II at Fort Winfield Scott, in San Francisco, California in the Coast Artillery and later Fort Sherman Canal Zone in Panama. He was honorably discharged from the Battery 8 1st Coast Artillery Battalion as a Staff Sergeant and received a Good Conduct Medal. Upon returning home to Montana, Bill married Lucille Virginia Carlson in 1946. Bill graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in horticulture and received his Bachelor of Science in education from Eastern Montana College. He later received his MasterÂ’s of Education from San Jose State University. BillÂ’s first teaching job was in a two-room country school in the Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District in 1950. He was a teacher and principal for grades one to six and also the janitor. Bill and Lucille later moved to Sunnyvale, California and lived there for over forty years. He served as an administrator and teacher in the Las Lomitas Elementary School District in Menlo Park for twenty-five years. He came to the district in 1956 as a fifth grade teacher at Ladera School. He then worked at all four of the district schools and acted as principal at La Loma School for the fourteen years the school was open. He also served as principal at Ladera School. He directed classroom work in remedial math and science, and also served as district director of maintenance for six years and later, director of curriculum. In 1981 he received a Continuing Service Award for recognition of outstanding service to children and youth by the California Congress of Parents, Teachers, and Students. Upon his retirement Bill said, Â“IÂ’m sure IÂ’ll miss school. I may go into a totally different field. IÂ’ve had some offers and IÂ’ve got a lot of hobbies.Â” That was quite an understatement. Bill had a shop in his backyard where he spent hours with his children and grandchildren teaching them all sorts of things. They learned how to run power tools, how to fix their cars, how to use a slide rule, and how to take care of the many different dogs that came into their lives. He also had a small business of making and selling workbenches that he built in that shop. His favorite pastime however, was scouring flea markets and garage sales, finding things, fixing them, and then reselling them, all in the days before Ebay. Bill hitchhiked through much of the United States as a young man. He spent time in Panama, and visited Europe and Scandinavia, but when his wife, Lucille, passed away, he decided to return to his hometown of Glendive where he enjoyed spending time with old friends and family. In 2006, Bill married Mary Lou Jones. Bill affected the lives of so many people through his teaching, his generosity, his caring, and his quiet encouragement. His son Scott, once said in a school paper, Â“He was a man of many facets.Â” This was so true and he will be greatly missed by his family and friends. Bill was preceded in death by his parents, Noel and Christine Carrico; his beloved wife, Lucille Virginia Carlson Carrico; son, Raymond Scott Carrico; and sisters, DÂ’arline Ezrene Carrico Olson and Elaine Sondrine Carrico Moody. Survivors include his beloved children, William N. Carrico, Jr., Thomas Mark (Julie) Carrico, and Mary Kay Carrico (Eric) Davis; cherished grandchildren, Kristy Lee Carrico, Ryan Scott Carrico, David Aaron Carrico, Lucas Noel Davis, Clayton Alexander Davis, Savannah Skye Carrico, and Makenna Rose Carrico. The family has asked that donations be made to Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana. Remembrances and condolences may be shared with the family at: www.silvernale-silhafuneralhome.com. Eulogy: Celebrant William Â“BillÂ” Noel Carrico. How privileged our world has been to have experienced BillÂ’s presence for over ninety years. Bill loved life, the world and the people in it. For Bill the world was a vast adventure to be explored. He had a boundless energy for people and projects, with many times people being his project. His lifeÂ’s vocation was teaching, which was a perfect fit for Bill because he was interested in everything, loved learning, and he had, as his son, Bill Jr. remembers, a Â“magicalÂ” way of sharing that knowledge. Bill did not just teach academics, he employed hands on teaching for the practical side of life. He was big on field trips and on using your hands along with your head. The joke at his retirement party was that every kid at his school had graduated with a trade. The same was true with his four children. They grew up on a steady diet of projects which included building a 500 foot square shop, a family room, learning electrical, plumbing, carpentry, cement work etc. They learned automotive mechanics by working on their vehicles. Everything was a work in progress. They learned about insects and marine life, refinishing furniture, what made a radio and watch work. And Bill loved to share what he knew or was learning, whether you wanted to know or not. But Bill never forced or pushed you to learn or do. He just had a quiet, low-key way about him that was hard to say no to. Bill was the kind of person that you just did not want to disappoint. It was son Scott who called his dad Â“a man of many facets.Â” The family joke was that Bill was Â“a man of many faucets,Â” because he collected many things, tools, radios, watches, cameras. Bill had a passion for flea markets and garage sales. He and his children made weekly trips to the flea market to buy and sell and collect. Bill was the ultimate recycler. He took great pleasure in buying junk and selling antiques. Bill was a voracious reader of books, preferably those with historical tones, and magazines, especially National Geographic. The gift he loved most was to receive a new book and it was a standing rule not to let Bill open a new book at Christmas, because if he did Christmas came to a screeching halt, as he wouldnÂ’t stop reading until he had finished the book. Bill loved to travel and he loved to learn about all the different places the world had to offer. As a young man, he hitchhiked thousands of miles around the United States. His time in the Army took him to Panama. He visited Europe, and traveled to Scandinavia to research his ancestry. But being born and raised in Eastern Montana, for Bill, Montana was home and dear to his heart. Family vacations were always to Montana. From the stories he told, his children and others believed that Glendive had streets paved with agates, and you couldnÂ’t walk around Glendive without kicking up a dinosaur bone. Bill loved to talk and tell stories. He could converse on any subject, and to hear him tell, he had done everything. There was just enough truth to his stories that you were never quite sure just what was accurate and what was Â“storyÂ”. But he so enjoyed whatever he was telling that you enjoyed it and wanted to buy into what he was saying. Bill liked a good joke or a bad pun. He rarely drank and did not smoke. He looked for ways to be helpful; sometimes he was too helpful. In noticing the accomplishments of others, he would often remark, Â“I had that kid in my class.Â” And he probably had. He was kind. He was generous to a fault. Bill was honest. He had great integrity. He had a quiet, calm sense of authority. People liked Bill. But most important in BillÂ’s life was his family. He told his daughter, Mary Kay, that he met their mother, Lucille, when Lucille was thirteen and he knew then she was the one for him. Their relationship was on and off until Bill was out of the service, and five days later they eloped and were married. Bill was a wonderful husband, doing what ever he could to make life good, assuring LucilleÂ’s happiness. He was always a gentleman, putting Lucille on a pedestal, and he treated women with respect. Lucille, in turn, did her best to make peace with BillÂ’s affinity for flea markets and garage sales. Early in their marriage, economics took them to California, where they raised their four children, Bill Jr., Scott, Tom, and Mary Kay. Bill was a great father. He was supportive of his childrenÂ’s activities. He had a feel for what they we personally trying to achieve and quietly let them have at it. He was sharing of his knowledge and time, sometimes more than they wanted. When Bill didnÂ’t have time for the eternal question Â“whyÂ” his response was Â“it is a secret of the Incas.Â” Or if he didnÂ’t want to deal with a question or request he would tell them to Â“write it downÂ”. His children knew he was proud of them; Bill would brag about each of them to their siblings. Bill provided his children with many tools to enrich their lives, a love of reading, deep respect for learning and knowledge, and he showed them how to command respect by quietly leading by example and by presence. BillÂ’s son Tom summed up his father with these words. Â“I am unable to adequately represent the profound influence my dad has had on my family and me. Ethics, integrity, character, hard working. These all leap to mind when I think of Dad. His conviction to these principles was, and will continue to be, a driving influence in my life, as well as my family.Â” Throughout his life, Bill always talked about coming back to Montana to live. In 2006, Bill returned to Glendive. Lucille had already passed, and he had her remains brought to the family burial site here in Glendive. Today, on this beautiful October morning, Bill will be put to rest with Lucille.

William Carrico

January 29, 1921 - October 1, 2011

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William Carrico

January 29, 1921 - October 1, 2011

What We Do

Flowers & Gifts

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About Us

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