Merle A Reinikka

January 29, 1933, in Vancouver, Washington, to Reinhold (Ray) and Vesta

Waldena (Dena) Reinikka. Merle’s Finnish grandfather, Jacob Reinikka, had

emigrated to the United States in 1903 and settled in Astoria, Oregon, where he

joined other family members who had immigrated from Finland earlier.

Merle lived in Vancouver until he was four years old when his dad, Ray,

became employed in 1937 at a lumber mill in Linnton, an industrial community

on the Willamette River in Northwest Portland. After Merle’s freshman year of

high school, his family moved in June 1948, to Chinook, Washington, where his

father became part owner of a café at the nearby Megler ferry landing. Merle

began attending Ilwaco High School, about seven miles from Chinook, and

participated in many school activities including dance committees, plays, the

school newspaper, Annual staff, Glee Club and Boy’s Quartet. He graduated in

May 1951 and, not being able to afford college tuition, joined the Navy on June

25, 1951.

Merle met Patricia (Pat) Bishop while on leave in Portland in May 1952 and

they were married on December 5, 1952. Merle was not yet 20 years old and

Pat had turned 18 just five days earlier. Three children, Debbie, Randy and

Dena, were born to them between 1953 and 1956. After Merle’s four-year Navy

enlistment ended in 1955, he began taking classes at Washington State College in

Pullman, Washington. Merle and Pat were divorced in 1957 and he later

married Gladys Mae Skoch on September 27, 1958. They had one child,

Christina Marie, adopted at the age of seven months in 1965. Merle finished his

college education when he graduated from the University of Portland in 1962

with a bachelor of arts degree in English.

In 1953, Merle began a new hobby - growing houseplants. He began

replacing these with orchids after seeing a newspaper advertisement for them.

By the time his enlistment had ended in 1955, he was nurturing about 20

orchids. Within a short time, he had joined the American Orchid Society and

the Oregon Orchid Society of Portland. After graduating in 1962, he accepted a

position on the editorial staff of the American Orchid Society at Harvard

University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His duties included editing article

manuscripts and planning the layouts for the American Orchid Society Bulletin,

a 96-page monthly magazine. A high point of Merle’s orchid-related activities

was the 1972 publication by the University of Miami Press of his authoritative

book, A History of the Orchid.

In 1971, Merle, believing his chances for further job advancement at the

American Orchid Society were limited, moved back to Portland where he

embarked on a new career as Managing Editor of the Union Register, the weekly

newspaper of the Western Council of Industrial Workers Union. He remained in

this position until his retirement 24 years later in 1995 at the age of 62.

Soon after returning to Portland, Merle attended a gem show by the

Oregon Agate & Mineral Society at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

High on the list of the Society’s interests was the Oregon sunstone, found only

in the high desert area of southeastern Oregon. During the next 43 years, Merle

mined sunstones, became an expert faceter of these gems, founded an

organization exclusively for faceters and was the editor of its bulletin for ten

years. He entered his faceted sunstones at regional gem and mineral shows

and won a Master’s status as a gemstone faceter. Merle then completed

training as a faceting judge and, for a number of years, served in that capacity

at regional gem shows.

An interest in his Finnish roots and in the Finns who settled in the Pacific

Northwest played a major role in Merle’s life. After an initial trip to Finland in

1984, Merle enrolled in a Finnish language course for the 1984-85 and 1985-86

school years at Portland State College before returning to Finland later in 1986

to complete his study of the church genealogical records of his Reinikka family

ancestors. The result of these efforts was the completion, at the end of 1986,

of a 374-page study entitled Reinikka Ancestors and Descendants. This study

was updated and digitized in 2009 and is now available online.

Merle became a member of the Finnish-American Historical Society and, in

1990, his monograph, Finnish Settlers of Long Valley, Idaho was published. He

also played a major role in FinnFest USA, an annual ethnic festival celebrating

Finnish culture and heritage that was begun in 1982. In 1995, Merle was the

chairman of that year’s FinnFest festival held in the stadium of Lewis and Clark

College and attended by several thousand visitors.

After his retirement in 1995, Merle travelled to many countries with

family members and friends. Unfortunately, his wife, Gladys, passed away after

a short bout with pancreatic cancer on February 3, 2004. Merle continued his

travels after her death and these, plus other life events, were summarized in his

autobiography, My Time Here, completed in December 2020.

Merle never lost his enthusiasm for life and the many interests he

pursued. An addition to his Reinikka genealogical study was completed only a

few days before his death. His passing is mourned not only by the many

members of his extended family, but also by the hundreds of people he met

and worked with while enjoying activities associated with orchids, gemstones,

family genealogical research and Finnish history.

Merle is survived by his daughter Debbie Erwin Steiner and her three

children, son Randall Reinikka, his wife Dana and their three children, daughter

Dena Erwin and daughter Christina Reinikka. He is also survived by many

great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.