Carl Rautio

Obituary of Carl Rautio CROFTON, Md. - Carl Ernest Rautio died March 14, 2005, from congestive heart failure in Crofton, Md. at the home of his youngest daughter, Judy Truppner. Carl had moved temporarily to Maryland in November 2004 to be with his family due to worsening health. Carl was born November 21, 1910, in Laurium, the first of three children, to Hannah Haavikko Rautio and Ernest Rautio. Carl grew up in Laurium and Mohawk, attending school in Calumet. Carl spoke only Finnish when he started first grade and then had to wait two years to come back and start first grade again after he learned to speak English. Carl's mother, Hannah, immigrated from Finland as a young girl to the U.P. where she met and married Ernest Rautio, one of 10 children of Solomon and Mary Rautio. Ernest worked in the copper and stamp mill mines. Hannah worked managing a restaurant in Calumet and then later, ran a boarding house in Houghton for college students so that her sons, Carl and Reuben, could attend college and not have to work in the mines. Carl graduated from the Michigan College of Mining and Technology, now known as Michigan Tech University, in 1938 with a degree in civil engineering. During Carl's college years, he worked as a geodetic surveyor throughout the Copper Country. He proudly would display to family and friends one of his geodetic markers at the top of Brockway Mountain in Copper Harbor placed in 1934. During his school days, Carl's love for music was displayed in his talent to be able to play three different instruments, the violin, the clarinet and the saxophone. He enjoyed playing in high school and college bands and played with the Warney Ruhle's Dance Band throughout the U.P. After graduation from Michigan Tech, Carl traveled south to Baltimore to begin his professional career. There he met his first wife-to-be, Lillian Nikkinen, who was born in South Range and had moved to Baltimore with her family as a child. Carl and Lillian had three daughters, Viola, Pamela and Judy. Carl's career also took him to Scranton, Penn.; Syracuse, N.Y., Portland, Ore.; and finally, to Washington, D.C. where he retired from the Army Corps of Engineers in 1973. Upon retirement, Carl returned to the U.P. and settled into his retirement home on Portage Lake in Dollar Bay. Unfortunately, Lillian died before his retirement and after his return to Michigan, he met and married Gladys Hecker of Hancock. Gladys and Carl were married 15 years before Gladys died in 1991. Shortly thereafter, Carl resumed a friendship with Elsie Kinnunen, a high school friend. They were then married nine years preceding Elsie's death in 2001. During this time, Carl moved into Hancock on Wright Street in the home in which his mother lived before her death. He was so kindly watched over by Barbara Bouwkamp and Paula Monson, his two nieces. Carl spent the last two and a half years of his life residing at the Bluffs in Houghton, where he had many friends and relatives who lived nearby. He was a member of the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Hancock where he attended services every Sunday and then liked to go to dinner following service at the home of his friend, Sylvia Collum, at Lake View Manor. He will be buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Houghton next to Gladys Rautio, his second wife. Carl is survived by his daughters, Viola Weiss and her husband, Roger, Pamela Ellis and her husband, Chuck, Judy Truppner and her husband, Michael. He is also survived by his sister, Helen Daavettila of Hancock; his nieces, Barbara Bouwkamp and her husband, Tom, of Laurium, Paula Monson and her husband, Terry, of Hancock; and his nephew, Henry Daavettila of Hermit's Cove. He is also survived by seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews of his deceased brother, Rueben Rautio and deceased cousin, Norman Raudio and their descendents as well as other relatives throughout the United States and Finland. To send flowers to the family of Carl Rautio, please visit Tribute Store