Gene was born on the family farm in Moland township.  When she married him on June 7, 1934,  Pearl Shetler, a graduate of Moorhead State Teacher's College, was teaching at Riverside School in Moorhead.  Eugene took over the Grover homeplace when his parents moved west in 1937. In 1943 Gene sold the farm and joined his parents and sisters in Oregon.  Four of Gene and Pearl's children were born in Minnesota.  Their youngest son was born after they settled in Oregon. Gene's first Oregon farm was at Springfield near Eugene.  In 1948 the family moved to Alfalfa, an unincorporated community 16 miles from Bend. Pearl died of cancer at the age of 46.  Eugene married Ruth Peterson Potschat on March 21, 1964.  In 1972 Gene contracted hepatitis from a blood transfusion during by-pass surgery.  His death five years later was attributed to that disease.  Ruth lived in Bend until her death on March 23, 1994.   Minnesota Birth Records   1940 Census