Wayland MUFFLEY
21 October 1918  -  17 May 1996

Wayland was born in the family barn in Fairfield, Idaho on 21 October 1918 to Mr. and Mrs. Fred Muffley.  His mother was Minnie Hopley.  He grew up in the Fairfield environment with horse and farm chores and camping, and attended high school there.  He participated on the various sports teams.

In 1942 Wayland attended radio school in Boise as part of his training for the Signal Corps in the U.S. Army and in 1943 was sent to New Guinea.  Following Officer Candidate School in Brisbane, he returned to New Guinea as a Second Lieutenant within the Signal Corps, as part of the MacArthur entourage, and proceeded through the Philippines and into Tokyo with the group as the War progressed.  He earned his captaincy in 1945 while in Tokyo.

Prior to the War, Wayland worked at the Boeing plant in Seattle and while visiting Vancouver, BC, met Maureta Stricker.  Following his departure from Tokyo (and his discharge from the Army) in 1946, Wayland went to Vancouver and he and Maureta were married.  The couple moved to Boise, where Wayland had taken a job with the Bunting Tractor company and in April of 1947, their first son was born.  In October of 1947 the family moved to Fairfield, Idaho where Wayland opened his own business by taking over the Camas County distributorship for the Fletcher Oil Company.  The distributorship had belonged to the Fairfield operation of Bunting Tractor and Wayland assumed it from them.  In January of 1948 Wayland returned to the Army as part of the reserves and was sent to Fort Ord in California, while Maureta and their son stayed in Vancouver with Maureta's parents.  On discharge from the reserves and the family's return to Fairfield, Wayland expanded his business of providing oil and lubricants and gasoline products for the farming community, to include crop support operations, spraying fields with pesticides and herbicides, which were popular in the early 1950's.

His second son was born in 1950, then Wayland was called back to military service and assignment to Korea.  Following his tour, he returned to his business in Fairfield, where he also served as the weed and pest control agent for Camas County.  In 1957 he moved the family to a small farm in Treasure Valley on the Boise River immediately south of Eagle, Idaho (west of Boise).  Wayland was the distributor for the Boise region for Sinclair Oil products.  About 1965 he left Sinclair and took the same position for Continental Oil Company (Conoco), from which he retired in 1968.  He and Maureta sold the farm and moved to Boise.

During this time he (and Maureta) worked diligently in the creation of the Idaho Association for Physically Handicapped Adults (IAPHA), which successfully established a facility giving independent living opportunity for physically handicapped adults.  With his sons moving on with their lives, Wayland accepted a job with a friend as an office manager and bookkeeper for Valley Truss in Boise for a couple of years, then he and Maureta set about exploring states and provinces in western North America.  Eventually, they purchased a home on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia on Secret Cove outside the community of Half Moon Bay.  Wayland became a landed immigrant in Canada (Maureta had always maintained her Canadian citizenship) and they moved to BC in 1973.  A few years later, they sold their home on Secret Cove and moved a few miles north to Bargain Bay near Madeira Park.  There, they built a home and enjoyed the visits of family and friends for fishing and general enjoyment of the natural surroundings.  In 1973 he and Maureta purchased a small mobile home trailer and placed it in Cathedral City, California.  It was there they went to spend winter months.

In the mid-1980's Wayland developed a respiratory condition that manifest itself while on the Sunshine Coast, but absent when away, so they sold their home on Bargain Bay and moved to a home in Oliver, BC in the Okanagan Valley.  On the 17th of May in 1996, two days after his and Maureta's 50th wedding anniversary, Wayland died from pneumonia and related respiratory complications.  Following cremation, his ashes were scattered amongst the natural forest overlooking Penticton and the Okanagan Valley.