Carroll E. Ordway, Jr.

WASHINGTON - Carroll E. Ordway Jr., 92, of Washington, died October 29, 2018 at home with his family.

Carroll was born in Barre on April 2, 1926, the son of the late Carroll E. Ordway Sr. and Evelyn R. (Matheson) Ordway.

Carroll spent his early childhood in Barre before moving to Washington where his family made their home for many years. He attended school in Washington and helped care for the animals on their small family farm. Carroll attended Spaulding High School before transferring to a technical school to become a machinist. In 1944, as soon as he turned 18, Carroll proudly enlisted in the US Navy, serving as an electrician’s mate aboard the LST 1084 through the end of the Second World War. Following the war, he made his home in Washington, while working as a machinist and electrician for The Cushman Company and later Rouleau Granite. On May 26, 1950, Carroll and Velma (Bid) Wright were married, initially making their home in Washington before moving to Websterville, then South Barre, until they built their home in Washington, where they raised their family and resided until their deaths. During the mid-1960s Carroll started his own business, Ordway Electric Machine in Barre Vermont. He loved his work repairing, maintaining, and eventually designing and building, machinery for the granite sheds primarily in central Vermont, but also for customers in various places in the United States and around the world. Carroll always wished he kept better track of how many machines he built over the years. Carroll continued to work until he was 91 years old. After retiring he continued to work on projects at home, including maintaining his pond, caring for his fruit trees, and restoring a 1941 Ford pickup truck.

Carroll enjoyed working, being busy and “getting things done”. He always seemed to have time to take a back roads ride with his wife. He enjoyed snowmobiling, buying his first Ski Doo in the early 1960s. Another favorite obsession of his was to get a “creemee”, and he loved that the local maple places served them year-round. Family knew Carroll loved his vanilla ice cream, but he would eat any ice cream that was available. His sense of humor was always forefront to any conversation you had with him, and his children are all lucky enough to have inherited that from him. While not much of a talker, Carroll did love a good conversation, especially about family and the Navy. Anyone who lived in the Ordway household knew that he could walk through a room and quickly identify most actors in any given movie, especially the classics.   Even as dementia took over his mind, he would call out the names when watching old westerns, especially John Wayne. In recent years Carroll enjoyed caring for his pug Daisy, but most of all he enjoyed spending time with his family. He especially valued time spent with his grandchildren and their friends.

Carroll is survived by his children: Martha Kennedy and her husband John, of Lancaster, Kentucky; Molly Paulger and her husband Thomas, of Montpelier; Amanda Whaples and her husband Lawrence, of Barre Town; Cal Ordway and his wife Deborah Grant Ordway, of West Bolton; and Ned Ordway and his wife Crista Brown Ordway, of Washington; nine grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter; and several nieces and nephews.

Carroll was predeceased by his wife of 66 years, Velma (Bid) Ordway, his brother James Ordway, and his parents Carroll E. Ordway Sr. and Evelyn R. (Matheson) Ordway.

A graveside service is planned for the spring.

Memorial donations may be made to Green Mountain Pug Rescue, ℅ Phil Douglas, 283 Town Line Rd, Mendon VT 05701; or online at http://www.greenmtnpugrescue.com/