Elsie Barrett Funk – June 21, 2023

Elsie Barrett Funk passed into the arms of her Savior Wednesday, June 21, 2023 at home in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She was 95. Born Elsie Marguerite Barrett on April 23, 1928 in Wendell, Idaho to George Gordon Barrett and Mary Blanche (Simonsen) Barrett, she was the second baby born in the newly-built Wendell hospital.

She grew up mostly in Caldwell, Idaho and in high school was a member of the National Honor Society and was Honored Queen in the local Job’s Daughters. She graduated from Caldwell High School in 1946. She attended the College of Idaho for two years then transferred to the University of Oregon Health Sciences (now Oregon Health Sciences University) in Portland, Oregon where she earned a B.S. RN in 1951. She then worked at the Caldwell Memorial Hospital until she married Dr. Merwin Anderson Funk (DVM) on May 23, 1952.

They moved to Camas, Utah to run the veterinary practice there, then moved to Homedale, Idaho to start the Owyhee Veterinary Clinic. She helped him run the practice until they sold it in 1967 and returned to Caldwell where Merwin was working as a veterinary meat inspector. She was busy raising four children, volunteering and leading various Girl Scout troops, and returned to work at Caldwell Memorial Hospital in the Emergency Room and then the newly-formed Cardiac Care Unit until she retired in 1978.

She then began teaching Orientation to Health Occupations, a specialized, multi-county vocational education course for high school seniors developed by the Canyon Owyhee School Service Agency (COSSA). She taught from 1978 to 1987, and gained national recognition for the program. She was also awarded the Idaho Vocational Teacher of the Year in 1987. She then served as State Director for Idaho’s Vocational Industrial Clubs of America (VICA) until 1992. She and Merwin then travelled the country for five years in their RV, until settling in Colorado Springs in 1997.

She was a member of the local chapter of the National Association of Parliamentarians, an active member of the Elmohr Iris Society, the American Iris Society and a Master iris judge. She was a member of Village Seven Presbyterian Church from 2009 until her death.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Merwin, her sister Barbara Plesha, and brothers Gordon Barrett and Lawrence Barrett. She is survived by a brother-in-law, John Plesha, her children, Timothy (Christina) Funk, James (Wendy) Funk, Sally (Mark) Gray, Nancy (Thomas) Harris, grandchildren Erin Funk, Michelle (Mike) Wenger, John (Cassie) Funk, Capt. Daniel (Amber) Funk, Jared Funk, Jordan Funk, Sara (Eben) Thomas, Emma Schlagel, and seven great-grandchildren.

Services will be held at Village Seven Presbyterian Church, 4050 Nonchalant Circle, Colorado Springs, 80919, on July 2, 2023 at 1 PM.