1986-03-07-sc-p23-george-wig-wyncoop-obit
March 07, 1986 Spokane Daily Chronicle Page 23:
George A. Wynecoop
Wake for George Allen Wynecoop, 53, a past president of Midnight Mines Inc. and a Spokane Indian leader, will be at the Spokane Indian Tribal Longhouse at Wellpinit, Wash., at 7 p.m. Monday.
Funeral will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Wellpinit Community Center with burial at Wellpinit Presbyterian Cemetery.
Mr. Wynecoop, a lifetime area resident, died Wednesday at his home in Spokane after an illness of several months with cancer.
Born April 11, 1932, in Wellpinit, he graduated from Reardan High School and lived most of his life in the Reardan area.
Mr. Wynecoop owned and operated the Grange Insurance Agency in Reardan for several years. He was co-owner of Spokane Helicopter Service Inc. from the 1960s until 1973, when a helicopter he was piloting crashed while he was flying support for crews fighting a forest fire near Inchelium.
In 1972, Mr. Wynecoop started the Indian Action Team at Wellpinit to train tribal members in various fields of work.
He also started Spokane Tribal Development Enterprises to build roads and homes on the reservation. That resulted in development of Tribal Farms, and he was Wellpinit Tribal Farms manager from 1976 until suffering a heart attack in 1984.
He helped found Coyote Corp. in Spokane in 1976 and currently was manager of that construction firm.
He also had been a partner in Wynecoop Wood Preserving Inc. near Ford.
Mr. Wynecoop was general manager and secretary-treasurer of Midnight Mines Inc., an open pit uranium mine on the Spokane Indian Reservation, at the time he was elected president in 1970. He served one term as president and was chairman of the board about four years.
He was named to the state Power and Energy Policy Council in 1973 by then-Gov. Dan Evans.
Mr. Wynecoop a]so had served on the boards of directors of the Spokane Advisory Council for the Small Business Administration, the Museum of Native American Cultures, and Tri-Nite Mines.
He was a member of The Spokane Club, Reardan Presbyterian Church, Wandermere Men’s Golf Club and Spokane Tribe of Indians, and a former member of the Grange, Reardan Lions Club and Harrington Golf and Country Club.
Mr. Wynecoop served with the Air Force in Korea during the Korean conflict and was the first commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10711 in Wellpinit.
Survivors include his wife, Crystal, at the home; five daughters, Cindy Duenwald of Reardan, Christine Simons and Rhonda Wynecoop, both of Spokane, Suzie Ward, in Alaska, and Donita Simons, Yakima; three sons, Jim Wynecoop of Spokane, Doye Simons of Seattle and Jeff Simons, in Spain; his mother, Phoebe Wynecoop, of Wellpinit; four brothers, Arnold Wynecoop of Spokane, Richard Wynecoop of Wellpinit, Robert Wynecoop in Minnesota, and Steven Wynecoop of Seattle; and 10 grandchildren.
