By HDN Staff
WILLIAM MCELROY
Dr. William Knoll McElroy, 80, died Thursday, Jan. 13, 2000 at a veterans home in Glendive from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
Memorial services will be held on Monday at 11 a.m. at First Baptist Church in Havre with the Rev. John Chapman officiating. Cremation has taken place. Interment will follow at a later date near Vida.
McElroy was born Nov. 18, 1919 near Ekalaka to George and Ivy (Goodell) Thompson. After the deaths of his parents in 1923 and 1925, he was adopted by William and Elizabeth McElroy and grew up on their farm near Denton.
After graduating from Denton High School in 1936, McElroy moved with his parents to Nyssa, Ore. From 1942 to 1945 he served in the U.S. Navy, much of the time in the South Pacific. After his discharge, he enrolled in the University of Montana in Missoula. He married Dagmar (Jan) Jensen on Sept. 4, 1947. The following year the couple moved to Chicago where he attended Northern Illinois College of Optometry. In September of 1951 he established his practice in Chinook and moved it to Havre in 1959.
He was a member of the First Baptist Church, Havre Lions Club, a lifetime member of the Montana Optometric Association, the Masonic Lodge in Havre, and a past chairman of the Hill County Republican Central Committee. He and his wife served with Volunteer Optometric Services of Humanity in Camargo, Mexico in 1985.
He enjoyed hunting, fishing, gardening, various collectibles, Western art and literature, and John Wayne movies.
He was preceded in death by his parents and adoptive parents, a sister, Beulah Adams, and three brothers, George, Bert and Floyd Thompson.
He is survived by his wife, Jan, of Havre, a son, Dr. Kevin McElroy of Boise, Idaho; four daughters, Marilyn DuBois and Beth Mehl of Fort Worth, Texas, Paula Kooren of Anchorage, Alaska, and Kristine McElroy-Weber of Longview, Wash., a sister, Alice Call of Rigby, Idaho, brother, Earl Thompson of Eugene, Ore., and 12 grandchildren.
Memorials may be made to a donor's choice.
Stevenson & Sons Funeral Home of Miles City is in charge of arrangements.
