June Mclean Bills
10/13/1926 - 7/2/2022
June Mclean Bills passed away at Sunrise of Boulder, a Senior Living Community in Boulder CO on July 2, 2022. She was born October l3, l926 in Beebe, Washington at home with her father doing the honors since the local doctor was away on another case. June was the third of four children born to George Stanley Mclean and Mary Gustin Mclean. She moved to Wenatchee, WA at a young age, attending schools there until she graduated from Wenatchee High School in l944. She attended Washington State College (later known as Washington State University) and, at the end of her first year, married her high school sweetheart, Daniel Granville Bills, on June 5, l945 who had just returned from England and World War II a few days before, after completing 35 missions on a B-17 in the Army Air Corps. They were sent to Ft. Lewis, WA until Dan's discharge on Armistice Day, 1945, where June worked as the secretary to the head of the Ft. Lewis U.S. Employment Service, finding employment for the soon-to-be discharged veterans of World War
II. Dan enrolled at Washington State College, Pullman, WA in June l946. While living there, June was secretary to the
Director of Admissions of WSC until Dan completed his
Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in 1951. In
June of that year they moved to Cambridge, MA where June worked as the secretary to the Director of the
Botanical Museum at Harvard University until Dan completed his research toward his Ph. D in Physics at Harvard in l955. They then moved back to Washington State University where Dan became an Asst. Prof. of Physics. In his last year at Harvard he and another graduate student, Nathaniel Phillips Carleton, formed a new electronics firm, which they named Granville-phillips Company. June served as their secretar ytreasurer for their first four years. They brought the company with them when they moved to Pullman, WA. In 1960 Dan resigned from his teaching position at WSU to work full time as head of Granville-phillips Co which was growing rapidly. In l962 they moved the business to Boulder, CO which had a better business climate.
When their youngest child entered kindergarten, June became a volunteer in the library at Burke School. When that child entered junior high, June transferred her volunteering to Boulder Memorial Hospital, where she served first as Secretary of the Hospital Auxiliary and then as Treasurer of the Auxiliary for many years until Memorial Hospital was purchased by Boulder Community Hospital. During that time, she was also a volunteer with the Belle Bonfils Blood Center in Boulder. She also volunteered as a Girl Scout leader and as a Cub Scout mother for her children's scout troops.
June was preceded in death by her husband of 65 years, Daniel, who passed in 2010, her parents, her two sisters Ginger Helfer (Donald, deceased) and Georgiann Hartl (Karl, deceased), her brother Robert and by one brother-in-law, Jack C. Bills (Mary, deceased). She is survived by their three children: Diane Lynn Paukstis (Gary, deceased) of Bellevue, WA, Brian Mclean Bills (Janet) of Castle Rock, CO and Anita Liane Mcmillin (Jim) of Madisonville, TX and two grandchildren Hannah Elizabeth and Christopher Lynn Paukstis.
At June's express wishes, there will be no services other than a family burial at a time of their choosing. In lieu of flowers, contributions in June's memory may be made to the Children's Hospital Colorado Foundation, at www.suppor tchildrensc olorado.org or to a charity of your choice.