A6
Community
wallowa.com
June 21, 2017
Wallowa County Chieftain
Journalist left an outstanding legacy
Wilson was an
author, an actor,
and a Christian
By Elane Dickenson
Special to the Chieftain
Losing a friend is diffi cult,
and many people lost a good
friend when Rocky Wilson left
this world to meet the Lord he
loved so much at 1 a.m. Sat-
urday, June 10, 2017, after 67
years on earth.
In
his
autobiography
(“Rocky Wilson: Why Am I
Here?”), Rocky claimed 18
instances –– give or take a few
-- in which he’d “been within
inches of heaven’s door,”
because of a long series fl uke
accidents or close calls. In a
way, he lived long beyond his
W AL L OW A COUN TY
Alcoholics Anonymous
Meetings
E N TE R P R ISE
JOSE P H
MONDAYS
MONDAYS
TUESDAYS
7 p.m. Enterprise Group
113.5 E Main St.
6 p.m. Grace and Dignity
(Womans Mtg) Joseph
United Methodist Church
St., Corner
Church 3rd
301 S. Lake St,
Basement
&
Lake, Side Stairs on
Lake St.
TUESDAYS
12-1 p.m. Enterprise Group
113.5 E Main St.
7-8 p.m. Enterprise Group
(Big Bk Study)
113.5 E Main St.
WEDNESDAYS
7 p.m. Enterprise Group
113.5 E Main St.
THURSDAYS
12-1 p.m. Enterprise Group
113.5 E Main St.
7 p.m. All Saints
(Mens Mtg)
113.5 E Main St.
WEDNESDAYS
Grace and Roses
Dignity
12 p.m. Rambling
(Womans Mtg)
301 S. Lake St., Church
Basement
W AL L OW A
SUNDAYS
7 p.m. Wallowa Assembly
of God Church
205 S Alder St.
FRIDAYS
7 p.m. Enterprise Group
113.5 E Main St.
SATURDAYS
7 p.m. Enterprise Group
113.5 E Main St.
personal life expectancy, though
not near long enough for those
left behind.
He leaves behind his beloved
wife Megan, whom he wed four
years before his death.
Bonded by a love of sports
and a deep Christian faith,
Megan recalls fi rst talking with
Rocky before a discipleship
meeting in Spokane because of
the Oakland A’s baseball cap
he was wearing. Though she
was many years younger than
Rocky, and he met her not long
before moving back to Wallowa
for the fi nal time, their union
was meant to be.
“It was a God thing,” Megan
says, repeating a phrase the cou-
ple included in their wedding
vows at the Josephy Center in
May 2013.
He always called her “the
woman of my dreams” and
had proposed to her at Juni-
per Jam the fall before their
wedding. Rocky’s Oakland
A’s cap and Megan’s Seattle
Mariner’s cap were both part
of their wedding ceremony.
Part of Rocky’s fi nal years,
despite medical issues of his
own, were spent in a determined
search to fi nd the best possible
way to treat and beat Megan’s
multiple sclerosis.
As the son of late longtime
Wallowa High School coach
Don Wilson, Rocky grew up
in Wallowa and in high school
achieved local legendary sta-
tus when he was quarterback for
WHS state champion football
team as a senior with the Class
of 1968.
During high school he also
began a lifelong love affair with
the written word, beginning his
journalism career by writing
about sports for the Chieftain.
Former Chieftain publisher
T HE B OOKLOFT
AND
Skylight Gallery
Submitted photo
Rocky and Megan Wilson were married in recent years and had lived in Wallowa prior to his
death.
and editor Don Swart Sr. recalls
Rocky forming part of the core
of the WHS state champion
football team. He later returned
to the Chieftain as a writer more
than once.
“All the time he was work-
ing for me, I never had a com-
plaint about the accuracy of his
stories,” Swart Sr. said.
Rocky also worked under
Don’s son Rick Swart, who
called him “a prolifi c writer
who covered a lot of ground as
a reporter, often writing eight to
10 byline news stories a week.”
In his 20s, Rocky became the
co-owner of his own newspaper,
based in Condon, and tells sto-
ries of working 70- or 80-hour
weeks to get the paper out.
Rocky’s real love, was fi c-
tion, and he has three published
novels: (“Sharene Death: A Pre-
requisite for Life,” a Christian
thriller, which won a Reader
View award; “Isle of Fantasty,
Where Good Trumps Evil” and
“Tread Softly Kent State.”).
He left one novel half com-
pleted, about airplane hijacker
Church
Finding books is our specialty
541.426.3351 • 107 E. Main • Enterprise • www.bookloftoregon.com
Directory
Church of Christ
502 W. 2nd Street • Wallowa
541-398-2509
Worship at 11 a.m.
Mid-week
Bible Study 7 p.m.
St. Katherine’s
Catholic Church
Fr. Francis Akano
301 E. Garfi eld Enterprise
Mass Schedule
Tues-Fri 8:00 am
Saturdays 5:30pm Sundays 10:30am
(541)426-4008
stkatherineenterprise.org
St. Pius X Wallowa Sundays 8:00am
All are welcome
Joseph United
Methodist Church
CLUES ACROSS
CLUES DOWN
1. A minute amount (Scott)
5. Supernatural
11. Shortening
14. More firm
15. Other side
18. Philippine island
19. More unnatural
21. Microsoft Surface Book
23. Ice T’s wife
24. Domesticates
28. Only one time
29. In absentia
30. Crustlike surface of a healing skin lesion
32. Distress signal
33. Engine additive
35. 1990s female R&B trio
36. Very fast airplane
39. A reward (archaic)
41. Anno Domini
42. Golf supplies
44. Indian term of respect
46. French river
47. Turn down the lights
49. Blood-sucking African fly
52. Provides info
56. Procrastinates
58. Tower with balconies
60. Where researchers work
62. Religious office
63. Must-have for office workers
1. In possession of
2. Aborigines
3. Early Syrian kingdom
4. Clip
5. Misleads
6. Cosmetic Ingredient Review
7. Calcium
8. United Talent Agency
9. Hair problem
10. Took down
12. Round Dutch cheese
13. Bicycle manufacturer
16. Suffix plural
17. Painting technique
20. Small Eurasian deer (pl.)
22. Mr. T’s character “__ Baracus”
25. Progressive nerve disease
26. Shock therapy
27. Able to be sold
29. Suffix
31. Binary coded decimal
34. Goes well with a carrot
36. A way to measure performance
37. Doctor __, children’s book author
38. Jewish calendar month
40. Designated hitter
43. Polish village
45. Part of the mind
48. Hand (Spanish)
50. Hit with the open hand
51. Italian island
53. Shakespeare was one
54. Lake __, one of the Great
55. Oswald and Marvin were two
57. Soak up using something absorbent
58. Kids’ dish __ and cheese
59. Expression of disappointment
61. The ancient Egyptian sun god
D.J. Cooper. A friend plans to
fi nish the book, Megan said.
Rocky also wrote a nonfi c-
tion work, “Spokane: Driving In
The Dark,” about his taxi driv-
ing experiences, plus his autobi-
ography, which is available only
online. Rocky’s books are avail-
able on Amazon and through his
website rockywilsonwhyhere.
com. He was proud of being
an author, and there’s no doubt
would be thrilled to become a
posthumous best-seller.
One of his most reward-
ing years was spent as an actor
with a professional traveling
Christian drama troupe called
the Covenant Players, perform-
ing 200 plays and appearing on
stage 500 times in the South.
Among Rocky’s best friends
was Gary Hulse, whom he’d
gone to high school with. Hulse,
who had a career with the Pend-
leton Fire Department, now
lives in Wallowa.
“We had a lot of good times
together through the years,”
Hulse said. “We’d go duck hunt-
ing and hang out whenever he
3rd & Lake St. • Joseph
Pastor Cherie Dearth
Phone: 541-432-3102
Sunday Worship Service
10:00 am
JosephUMC.org
St. Patrick’s
Episcopal Church
100 NE 3rd St, Enterprise
NE 3rd & Main St
541-426-3439
Worship Service
Sunday 9:30am
Gospel Centered Community
Service time: 10:30 am
Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise
Pastor Mark Garland
www.summitchurchoregon.org
Worship 2 nd & 4 th Sundays - 2 pm
Bible Study
2 nd & 4 th Thursdays - 11 am
LCMS
(Lutheran Church Missouri Synod)
Pastor Terry Tollefson
Church Offi ce: 541-263-0505
Family Prayer: 9:15am
Worship Service: 10am
“Loving God & One Another”
David Bruce, Sr. - Minister
723 College Street
Lostine
Lostine
Presbyterian Church
Enterprise Community
Congregational Church
Discussion Group 9:30 AM
Worship Service 11:00 AM
The Big Brown Church
Stephen Kliewer, Minister
Wallowa
Assembly
of God
606 West Hwy 82
Wallowa, Oregon
541-886-8445
Sunday School • 9:30
Worship Service • 10:45
Pastor Tim Barton
wallowaassemblyofgod.com
(5VU7YVÄ[*VTT\UP[`/LHS[O*LU[LY
409 W. Main
Enterprise, Oregon
85035 Joseph Hwy • (541) 426-3449
541.398.0597
Hwy 82, Lostine
Spyware Removal • 541-426-0108
103 SW 1st St., Enterprise
Faith
Lutheran
Church
Christ Covenant
Church
Childrens program during service
Blog: dancingforth.blogspot.com
Time for a Computer Tuneup?
Summit Church
Enterprise
Christian Church
Worship at 9 a.m.
Sunday School at 10:30 a.m.
Evening Worship at 6 p.m.
(nursery at A.M. services)
came home.”
In high school he said Rocky
was not only an excellent ath-
lete, but popular and a good
student. One thing that always
made him stand out, Hulse said,
was his love of writing.
“He had an amazing life,
good and bad. He was almost
always positive ... He was a
good friend and I’ll miss him.”
Another important person
in Rocky’s life was Chris Wil-
liams, his stepson by relation-
ship but the true son of his heart.
He returned to Wallowa
County the last time to spend
more time with his aging father,
who died a couple of years ago,
after I sent him an email to him
about a job opening at his old
paper. He prayed about it and
received a defi nitive answer. It
was time to return home.
Megan Wilson plans to stay
in Wallowa and is looking for-
ward to a big memorial gather-
ing this summer to honor Rocky,
though no date has yet been set.
“He had so many good
friends. Everywhere we went he
had friends,” she said.
She was able to spend nine
hours with him before his death
and let him know that it was
okay for him to let go.
“He didn’t want to leave
me,” Megan said. “He treated
me like gold. I loved him so
much but I know he’s in a bet-
ter place. I hate that cliché, but I
know it’s true.”
with an open door
Pastor Archie Hook
Sunday Worship 11am
Bible Study 9:30am
Ark Angels Children’s Program
Ages 4-6th grade, 11am
Nursery for children 3 & under
301 NE First St. • Enterprise, OR
Find us on Facebook! 541.426.3044
Seventh-Day Adventist
Church & School
OHSU Resident
Maggie Wells, MD
June 7th - June 28th
Hours:
Monday-Friday
7:00am to 7:00pm
Saturday
9:00am to 1:00pm
603 Medical Parkway
Enterprise, OR 97828
Rock The
Rodeo Season!
Largest Selection
of Boots and
Booties...Ever
~ Old Gringo
~ Liberty Black
~ Corral
~ Miss Macie
Stop by today!
Open Daily 10 am – 5 pm
305 Wagner (near the Cemetery)
P.O. Box N. Enterprise, OR 97828
541-426-3751 Church
541-426-8339 School
Worship Services
Sabbath School 9:30 - 10:45 a.m.
Worship Hour 11:00 a.m. - Noon
Pastor Jonathan DeWeber
Uptown Clothing & Accessories
in Downtown Joseph
12 S. Main St. • 541-432-9653