EASTRIDGE, Benjamin Ralph

Today's News-Herald, Lake Havasu City, Arizona Published Tuesday, June 22, 2010 At age 96, Benjamin Ralph Eastridge passed away June l9, 2010, at his Lake Havasu City home. He was born in Pendleton, Ore., Oct. 11, 1913, to Ben and Myrtle Knight Eastridge. He grew up on the family ranch, attending public schools through high school. He attended Eastern Oregon Normal (now Eastern Oregon State University) for two and a half years, paying his way with handling freight at JCPenney Co. store and summer jobs as a farm hand. Switching from his ambition to be a teacher, Eastridge began full time work at the Pendleton JCPenney store, in 1933. Except for four years of Army duty in World War II, he devoted the next 39 years to the retail company. His career took him to San Francisco, Seattle, Pontiac, Michigan and Los Angeles County, Calif. Volunteering for duty after Pearl Harbor, Eastridge entered the U.S. Army in 1942 as a private, and in 1946, retired as a captain. He commanded a platoon on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when his regiment formed the second wave of the assault landing on Omaha Beach, in Normandy, France. From then until VE Day in 1945, he served as a combat infantry officer in his regiment, the 115th Infantry, which suffered more than 6,000 casualties. Married to Helen Anna Beck in 1951, the couple are parents of Edward R., of Scottsdale, and Susan H. Arnold, main home in McLean, Va. He retired from the retail business in l972 to build a home in Lake Havasu City, then a new subdivision boasting a population of about 5,000. With experience from his working years, he filled volunteer jobs for the Chamber of Commerce, United Way, Community Presbyterian Church, and the Committee of Architecture, which oversaw building plans for the subdivision. In 1976, he joined a group seeking to make Lake Havasu City into an incorporated city. The group lobbied the state Legislature for Senate Bill 1010, an alternate plan for incorporation of a development. Eastridge was elected chairman of the group in that year and led a drive to put the matter to a vote. The voters chose the incorporation plan in September 1978. Following the incorporation drive, Eastridge was appointed the first chairman of the newly-created Planning Board, now known as the Planning and Zoning Commission. Its members wrote the city code's zoning section, much of which is still in use. His other retirement activities included teaching business courses at the new community college, and tending one of the city's real grass lawns, which gave way to crushed stone after a heart attack in year 2000. Services will be scheduled for a later date to celebrate his life. Thoughts and condolences may be submitted to the family at www.lietz-frazefuneralhome.com. Arrangements were placed under the care of Lietz-Fraze Funeral Home and Crematory.