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Dale C. Cannady
Dale Cannady was born in Gering, Nebraska, on May 2, 1920. In his 92 years of life, he has witnessed many changes in the United States and the world.
From 1924 until 1932 Dale’s parents farmed nea...view moreDale Cannady was born in Gering, Nebraska, on May 2, 1920. In his 92 years of life, he has witnessed many changes in the United States and the world.
From 1924 until 1932 Dale’s parents farmed near the town of Morrill, Nebraska and the village of McGrew, Nebraska. He attended kindergarten in a one room rural schoolhouse. He attended elementary school in the village of McGrew. The 1920s saw the last active and lively years of American villages. That era witnessed the rapid rise of farm mechanization, the automobile, and the airplane.
In 1932, in the darkest days of the Great Depression, Dale’s family was forced to leave the farm and moved into the village of McGrew. Dale’s father supported the family with income from seasonal farm labor, service as village night watchman in the winter, and the New Deal’s WPA. During those years villages died, and small towns in America became less vigorous and lively. The family remained in McGrew until Dale graduated from high school in a class of six in 1938.
In 1938 the family moved to Bayard, Nebraska, and continued the efforts required for survival in the Depression’s gloomy years. Dale’s limited employment, begun in his teens, was in seasonal labor on farms. One summer he went with friends and was a “fruit tramp” in northern Californian orchards. He was also employed for a time each autumn in the beet sugar mill in Bayard, and sporadically on New Deal National Youth Administration projects.
Dale’s life in the Great Depression ended with the onset of World War II, when he migrated to the Pacific Northwest. to gain full time employment at Boeing Airplane Co in Seattle, Washington. As a riveter on B17s and B29s Dale joined many men and women in building America’s war machinery. After being drafted into the US Army he completed Air Force basic training at Shepherd Field (now Shepherd Air Force Base) in Texas and training at Counter Intelligence Corps school in Baltimore Maryland. He served in CIC in the American zone of occupation in Austria, where he met his future wife, Maria Neulinger.
Dale took advantage of the GI Bill to attend and graduate cum laude from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1950 at the age of 30, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. His career in city planning began in Seattle and included 15 years as Assistant Planning Director in Portland, Oregon.
During a 63 year marriage Dale and his wife, Mitzi, have been blessed with three wonderful children, nine grandchildren, and six great grandchildren.view less