Dr. Milt Skov, a former The Dalles mayor who was heavily involved in a variety of community boards and endeavors, died at his home on Sept. 28 at age 88.
A memorial service is set for this Sunday, Oct. 18, at 3 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, located at 10th and Union.
A veterinarian since 1955, he’d lived in The Dalles for 57 years. He started working in Goldendale, moved to The Dalles in 1958, then founded The Dalles Veterinary Hospital in 1968.
A year later he hired Dr. Wally Wolf over the phone. Within six months he trusted Wolf with the business’s books.
“Most trusting kind of man there ever was,” Wolf said. “He was very community-oriented. He was a great person to know and a great partner, I couldn’t have picked a better one.
“He was a hard-working man but he also was very giving too,” Wolf said. “He was a good-hearted man; did a lot of favors for a lot of people.”
Skov was born in Portland in 1927 and grew up in Oregon and Washington, graduating from Camas High School near Vancouver in 1944.
He forged his mother’s name on papers to join the U.S. Merchant Marine at age 17.
He was the grand
marshal of the Veterans Day parade in The Dalles last year, and told the Chronicle then about his service during World War II, which included the highly dangerous work of shipping supplies to troops in the Pacific.
His ship, the Coeur d’Alene, launched in January 1944 and Skov said its task was to carry B-29 bomber engines to Allied forces in Saipan and Guam.
“It was a very, very important commodity, we couldn’t sail fast enough to keep up,” he told the Chronicle.
“We were such a high priority that if there was not room at the dock for us to unload they’d move other ships out for us.”
Even though the Merchant Marine had the second highest mortality rate of the various branches of service during World War II, they were not given veterans benefits until decades after the war, so Skov put himself through college.
Starting college in Bellingham at Western Washington State College, Skov transferred to the University of Portland in 1950, then began veterinary medical studies at Washington State University in Pullman.
He got a bachelor of science degree in biological sciences, then got his doctorate of veterinary medicine in 1954.
On Christmas Day in 1949, he married Shirley Capper of Spokane.
He is survived by Shirley, their three children, Linda, Eric and Randy; six grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
While Skov was a student in Pullman, Wolf said, he paid college and living expenses by building 23 homes.
“He made it out of school without the horrendous debt that people have nowadays,” Wolf said. “He was an ambitious man.”
He was a hard worker – he helped convert a church in Bingen into a veterinary hospital, and later oversaw establishment of another veterinary hospital in Hood River — but he also loved to play golf.
“He was an avid golfer. If anything interfered with his Wednesday afternoon golf game, that caused him some trouble,” Wolf recounted.
In 1978, he left his practice to serve as the Washington State Veterinarian for a year, serving under Washington Gov. Dixie Lee Ray.
“He thought that sounded kind of like a fun job, to cut back on work and travel around the state,” Wolf said.
In addition to serving as city councilor and mayor in The Dalles, Skov was on the District 12 school board, which he chaired for a time.
He also served on the Northern Wasco County People’s Utility District for 27 years. “He tried awful hard to get a new school built out where the fire station is today,” Wolf recounted.
A skill center was built instead at the high school in the 1970s, he said.
Wolf said of Skov, “He didn’t fight with many people, but you didn’t have to wonder where he stood either.”
Skov was a member of the Masonic Blue Lodge and a life member of Al Kader Shrine Club.
He was a longtime supporter of the arts and belonged to the Community Concert Association, the Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Portland Center Stage.
He was a member of Master Gardeners and the American Legion and supported numerous local organizations with pig feeds and auctions of bird feeders, in particular the Art Association, the Civic Auditorium, the Discovery Center and Museum, Mid-Columbia Healthcare Foundation and the Hustlers baseball team.
He was a life member of the American Veterinary Medical Association and served on the board of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.
He also earned his private pilot’s license and flew his Piper Super Cub to ranches in Sherman and Wasco counties to treat farm animals in the field.
He was also on the airport commission for the City of The Dalles.
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