Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
TEKOA — From 1960 to 1974, Tekoa couple Milo and June Yale owned and operated Yale’s Food Store with the help of their six children.
Long after the store’s closure, friends, neighbors, and classmates of the Yale family say they continue to speak highly of the family’s impact on the community, and second child Tim Yale has been no exception.
After graduating from Tekoa High School in 1964, Yale’s studies first took him to Washington State University, and later to graduate education in Northern California where he would work as a hospital pharmacist until his retirement.
According to many Tekoa residents, Yale’s presence in the community left an impression that was remembered even after his departure.
“Everybody liked everything about Tim,” said Monica Peters, who attended Tekoa High School with Yale and later met her husband, Yale’s WSU roommate, through him.
“He was just a good role model for people and a good mentor, that’s true of the whole Yale family,” said Peters.
When Yale passed unexpectedly in June of this year, his peers in Tekoa felt the need to memorialize him locally.
Don Michelbook, another of Yale’s high school classmates, suggested a donation to the Tekoa Food Pantry.
Pantry organizers were contacted, word was spread, and now over $1,000 has been donated in Yale’s memory, said Peters.
For the Pantry, the donations came just in time.
“It just so happened that when all of these donations were coming in, the pantry’s fridge was on its last legs,” said Peters, “The new fridge will be a lasting thing that will go on for a while.”
To honor Yale, donations can still be sent to the Tekoa Pantry via the Council on Aging Services at P.O. Box 107, Colfax, WA 99111, with 'Tekoa Pantry' in the memo line.
Reid Thompson is an intern reporter at the Whitman County Gazette. Reid is enrolled at Syracuse University, where he studies journalism and international relations.
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