Montrose - Daily Press

Henry Calvin Mallett

Sept. 7, 1914 - Sept. 18, 2007

“The Most Cheerful Man I’ve Ever Known”

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MONTROSE — Henry Calvin Mallett, a 22-year resident of Montrose,Colo., died Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2007 at Montrose Memorial Hospital. He had just celebrated his 93rd birthday with family members, and was rototilling his garden on the day he was felled by a massive stroke that took his life just one week later.

A public memorial service will be held Wednesday, Sept. 26, 1:30 p.m. at Valley Baptist Church in Montrose. He will be buried at Valley Lawns Memorial Park in the family plot later this week..

‘Cal’ was born in Texhoma, Texas, on September 7, 1914. He was one of three sons and a daughter born to Texans Henry Collier Mallett and Ethel Rhode Campbell-Mallett. After the early death of Ethel, the family moved to Montrose during the middle years of the Great Depression.  Collier subsequently married Essie Baxter, and together they operated a vegetable and berry farm along the Uncompaghre River at the north edge of Montrose for three decades. During that time, they gave birth to a son named Bobby Dwain, the sole offspring of that union.

After graduating from high school and two years of civil engineering school, Cal enlisted with the Civilian Conservation Corps, working on forestry projects in Colorado and Wyoming. For a portion of that time he worked as camp barber, tending to what he later called “my victims.”

He married Laura Jean Toothaker of Delta, Colo., in 1936, and worked as a construction foreman on the North Gunnison River dam and at “any other job I could find” in the Delta/Montrose region. Such was the lot of all laboring people hard hit by the national depression. The Mallett family experiences at that time caused some to say their story had been used as a model for the best-selling history novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.”

With the onset of World War II, Cal was called to Long Beach, Calif., to work as a welding foreman repairing battleships at the U.S. Naval Shipyards. After the war, in late 1948, he moved the family to Denver where he founded Mallett Roofing and Siding Company, a business that he operated for some 20 years. He then worked a number of years as a barber and as a City of Denver building inspector before returning to Montrose to retire in May 1985.

Calvin and Jean Toothaker-Mallett had four boys: Ronald, of Milliken, Colo.; Terence, of Crawford, Colo.; Walter Travis (deceased), of Berthoud, Colo.; and Douglas, also of Berthoud. In addition to three sons, Cal is survived by former wife Jean, of Loveland, Colo.; a brother Andrew (Andy), of Delta; by four daughters-in-law, Pat (Ron), Frances (Terry), Carol and Charlotte (Doug); and by 10 grandchildren, 25 great grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren, as well as a large number of nephews and nieces of various generations.

Cal was preceded in death by son Walter Travis Mallett; a sister, Willa Lee McLacklan of Utah; a brother, Glenn Dana of Wash.; and half-brother Bobby Dwain of Los Angeles.

In lieu of flowers or other gifts, donations may be made to Valley Baptist Church in support of their missions fund. The family expresses great admiration of the staff and facilities of Montrose Memorial Hospital.

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