Ernest Allen Carman

Ernest Allen Carman, 81, of Clatskanie, Oregon was declared deceased on Monday, March 2, 2026 at the palliative care home, Avalon Columbia Care Center, in Scappoose following extended hospitalization for stroke related complications.

He was born in rural Nebraska to Robert and Myrtie Carman who relocated to the Pacific Northwest for his father’s lumberjack job when he was about 3 years old. They stayed with relatives in Seaside, Oregon for a short time and then moved into a home and land out on Swedetown Road in Clatskanie, OR, where he remained a resident for the duration of his life. All of Ernest’s schooling was completed in that area. In high school he won awards in live theater acting on stage as well as running in track and field athletics. He met his wife, Nilce, when she was the first American Field Service foreign exchange student that Clatskanie High School hosted in the late 1960s. He was in the Spanish Club at school and took her to their high school prom that year she attended where they both graduated as seniors. Then Nilce returned home to Costa Rica, where they began to write letters back and forth to one another for 10 years. They saw each other once when Ernest took the opportunity to find her in Central America where he was stationed serving his full term honorably with the U.S. Air Force in the meteorology surveillance department at the Panama Canal Zone during the Viet Nam War era, Panama bordering Costa Rica next door.

Ernest attended Warner Pacific College in Portland, OR, for two years studying to be an English teacher and singing in the college men and women’s chorus and then left to begin decades of employment at the Wauna paper and pulp mill formerly known by different names (Crown Zellerbach, James River, Georgia Pacific), to provide for his large family and from where he retired early due to work related injury and continued his service through citizen leadership and avid volunteering to the local area by board membership with the Clatskanie Arts Commission, The Clatskanie Public Library, the local Kiwanis chapter and some work for the Oregon State Arts board and Sheriff’s Association, among many other volunteer projects and advocacy causes including the Flippin House Castle/Senior Center of Clatskanie and editorials he wrote regularly for the former Chief newspaper of his hometown. He also was an avid artist, preferring the medium of chalk pastels depicting people, nature/animal scenes and subjects and enjoyed woodworking and stone and masonry artisanship taught to him by his father.

Ernest was preceded in death by his parents. His father, Robert Ernest, in 1986 and mother, Myrtie Leora, in 2002. He was their only child. Ernest’s wife, Nilce, passed away at age 68 from brain cancer, and he never remarried. He is survived by their only children, four daughters: Andréa Palacios of San Diego, CA, Erica Lopez of Hillsboro, TX, Myrtie Carman and Wendy Isaacson both of Clatskanie, OR. He is also survived by his 14 dearly beloved grandchildren and more stepchildren from their daughters’ families as well as Sophie, his beloved pet toy Maltese.

Graveside service provided by Groulx Family Mortuary in Rainier will take place at Murray Hill Cemetery in Clatskanie for close family and friends able to attend on Friday, March 13th, 2026 at 1:00 p.m. where he will be placed to rest next to his wife. A military veteran symbolic sendoff is planned. A Christian celebration of life service will be offered later on at a date, time and location to be announced by the family. Donations to the family to help cover funerary expenses would be greatly appreciated. Ernie was a unique soul who will certainly be greatly missed by his community.