Merlin (Merle) Yoder

Merlin (Merle) Yoder, 82, of Grand Island, passed away on Thursday, September 30, 2021 at the Grand Island Good Samaritan Village from natural causes.
Celebration of Life Service will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct 6 at All Faiths Funeral Home.  Daniel Naranjo will officiate.  Family will be greeting friends an hour before service time.
Memorials are suggested to the family for future designations.
Merle Yoder, the son of Ralph and Esther (Saltzman) Yoder was born in Sutton, on November 23, 1938.
Merle grew up in Shickley, and graduated from Shickley High School in 1956.  Following High School, he moved to Lincoln and worked for Gooch Milling Company and started a family with his first wife, Merna; with this marriage they had two sons Michael and Monte.  Merle and his family moved to Superior, where he started a career in the transportation industry, hauling milk cans from dairy farms to the creameries.  In 1967, he and his family moved to Aurora where he worked for a short time at the Grand Island Ammunition Plant in support of the Viet Nam War, before returning to truck driving.
From the early 1970s, Merle worked for several companies driving tractor trailer semis locally and over the road, while making many friends along the way.  Among the companies Merle drove for were GI Express and retired from Sunrise Express.
In 2000, Merle was introduced to Gloria Mattley and they married May 12, 2001.  Since their introduction, Merle and Gloria enjoyed, morning coffee together, dancing, and watching their favorite country music bands.   Merle continued to drive trucks until his health would no longer allow.
Merle was also a big New York Yankees baseball fan, so much that he had blue pin stripes painted on his basement walls, where he enjoyed watching the baseball games on TV.   He was always impressed with military aircraft and looked for opportunities to observe WWII era fighters and bombers.  He was proud of his family and enjoyed sharing about his son’s military service.
Those left to cherish his memory are his wife of 20 years, Gloria of Grand Island; two sons, Michael (Bridget) of Henderson, and Monte (Kelly) of Whitestown, Indiana; stepson Trenton Mattley; stepdaughter Kim (Shawn) Semler; 13 grandkids and 20 great-grandkids.
He is preceded in death by his parents and infant brother, Gerald.