Lester Eugene Alden, 

descendent of Mayflower Pilgrims, concluded a life well lived at 
his home in Boise, Idaho on December 29th, 2009 after a 
courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. "Call me Gene" he 
would say, when a friend he hadn't met yet called him "Lester". 
The beginning was a frosty January 6th, 1927 at Bovill, Idaho, 
the son of James Walter "Walt" Alden and Florence France 
Alden. The family had moved out west from Oklahoma in 1914 
with Gene's older brother Earl, then 5. Brother Floyd was born 
the following year at Potlatch, Idaho. Once settled in Bovill, 
Walt worked as a log train engineer and a master mechanic for 
the Potlatch Lumber Company where youngest son Gene later 
found summertime work as a teenager. Gene treasured the 
Bovill years. In 1941, the year that will live in infamy, the family 
moved to Orofino, Idaho, otherwise known as the "Mayberry of 
the Northwest". "Orofino was the big city to me", Gene recalled. 
"It had a drug store and, best of all, a movie theater!" Gene's 
high school years brought many accolades from basketball 
when he played for the Orofino Maniac's varsity team as a 
freshman, to the ballot box when he was voted freshman class 
secretary and "Best Looking Boy" by his matriculating peers. 
During the weekday noontime rush you could find an 
entrepreneurial Gene behind the lunch counter at Oud's Drug. 
For a time, he performed janitorial duties at the local bank. 
After school and Saturdays you could find him working at the 
Orofino Mercantile. Sunday was the best of all. Gene got to play 
chauffeur for the local Catholic priest, destinations ranging from 
nearby parishes to "retreats" replete with fine wine and cigars. "I 
was thrilled!" Gene remembers, "Gas was rationed at that time 
during the war, and I was the only kid in town who got to drive 
a car!". Not only that, the driving duties brought in three silver 
dollars a weekend, a king's ransom for a high school kid at that 
time. On his 18th birthday, Gene enlisted in the United States 
Navy. After several months of basic training in Memphis, TN, it 
was on to Jacksonville, FL for aerial gunnery training, and then 
to Pensacola, FL for a short assignment and some awesome 
weekends on the beaches at Fort Lauderdale. Finally, it was 
back to Sandpoint NAS in Seattle, WA during which time the 
atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. A crew 
assignment that could have changed Gene's life forever never 
materialized. In 1946 an honorable discharge for the 19 year 
old set the stage for the next chapter in Gene's life. Enrolled at 
the University of Idaho pursuing a Business degree in 
Accounting (his senior year, to his regret, never finished), Gene 
met Blanche Ellen Frensdorf, another number cruncher and the 
future mother of his child. They married in 1953 at the Orofino 
Methodist Church. Their son Richard Alan was born in 1959. 
Gene was a child of nature. From many a Steelhead fishing 
expedition, ski outing, and camping trip in northern Idaho, to 
his love of animals (a list of pets too voluminous to name 
including an abandoned fawn he nursed back to health in his 
back yard as a child), nature played an important role in Gene's 
life. Deciding not to pass up a job offer too good to be true, he 
reluctantly forfeited his final year of college, and from 1951 to 
1961 kept the books for The White Pine Lumber Company in 
Orofino. Our country benefited from his service once again in 
1961 when he was hired as a Budget and Accounting Analyst 
with the US Forest Service. Helping to establish the Orofino 
Golf Course as original secretary, he purchased and issued 
himself Stock Certificate #1 when they broke ground in 1966. 
His 27 years of government service took the family from 
Orofino, ID to Sandpoint, ID to Helena, MT and finally to Butte, 
MT, where he retired in 1988. He was now ready for some R&R. 
Gene and Blanche returned to Orofino for a few years to look 
after Blanche's brother who was battling cancer. In 1993 they 
returned to Butte and life was good until Blanche left us quickly 
in the Spring of 1995. Gene again returned to Orofino and 
looked after his wife's family environs until 1998, at which time 
he and his beloved "girl dog" moved to Boise, Idaho at the 
urging of his son and daughter-in-law. Being in Boise also 
allowed him finally to cultivate a long overdue relationship 
with his brother Earl who was 17 years his senior. While growing 
award winning flowers and gargantuan watermelons, both 
recognized in the 2009 Western Idaho Fair (the watermelon won 
best in show), becoming a regular fixture on Banbury Golf 
Course, being a somewhat regular fixture on the island of Maui 
(the Hawaiian island with lots of golf courses), he cherished his 
greenery, his golf, his family (four legged ones too), and his 
friendships throughout his life's journey. Not finished yet, 
battling advanced pancreatic cancer, he added to his 
achievements in December of 2009, receiving a long overdue, 
sorely missed, and rightly deserved, Bachelor of Science degree 
in Business-Accounting from the University of Idaho and 
recognition from the UI Alumni Association for his 29 years of 
achievement in the workplace. His "senior" year was now 
complete. He considered it the perfect final paragraph for the 
story of his life. He finally graduated. Predeceased by his 
parents, siblings, and wife, Lester Eugene "Gene" Alden is 
survived by his loving son and daughter-in-law Richard and 
Victoria Alden as well as by wonderful nieces, nephews, and in-
laws among the Alden, Frensdorf, and Burks families. As for his 
amazing friends, including neighbors, those at The University of 
Idaho and St. Luke's Hospice, you know who you are. As does 
he. Graveside service will be at Orofino, Idaho in the Spring of 
2010. Donations may be made to the Idaho Humane Society or 
St. Lukes Hospice. "God bless you all."

Published in Idaho Statesman from December 31, 2009 to 
January 3, 2010