Troy Vance was born on October 21, 1963 in Bellevue, Washington to Earl Vance and Sardi Bowyer. He had 3 older siblings, Martin, Cynthia and Earl Jr. The family lived in Pennsylvania for a short time and after his parents divorced, Troy moved to Junction City, Oregon with his mother and siblings. He grew up there and reminisced about trimming Christmas trees, moving irrigation pipe and picking cherries on the family cherry orchard and claimed that he was the fastest cherry picker. Troy was a good athlete and played football and basketball for Junction City High School. After graduating from high school, Troy furthered his education at DeVry University in Arizona. While attending college, he worked as a life guard at the Marriott Hotel. After graduating and receiving his Associates degree, he moved to California where he began his career in Electronics. Troy had a job interview with Fujitsu in Gresham in the late 1980’s. He was amazed at the beauty of Mt. Hood and had decided that he wanted to call Oregon his “home”. Soon after, he was hired at Fujitsu and moved to Troutdale and bought his first home. He worked at Fujitsu until the plant closed and was recently employed at Tokyo Electronics as a field service engineer.
It was in 1993, that he met his future wife Teri Nishimoto in Sun River, Oregon while on a ski trip. They were engaged within 6 months and moved to Sandy. On August 20, 1994 he and Teri were married at their home. They had 2 children together, Tanner in 1997 and Taya in 1999.
His children will remember him as a devoted father who would always put his children first. He was willing to “stop what was going on in his world” to meet the needs of his kids, whether it was playing basketball, wrestling or listening to what they had to say. His son Tanner has fond memories of camping trips at Lost Lake with his dad, “man style”. Taya has fun memories of endless shopping with her dad, but will remember him the most as always knowing where home was. He was always there for his kids and they both always knew how important they were to their dad. Teri always admired Troy’s creativity, his ability to see the vision in his head before he made it a reality. She will always remember his thoughtfulness, his romantic nature and the strong love and commitment he had for her and their children.
Troy loved kayaking down the Sandy River, skiing, camping and fishing. He had an artistic eye, was extremely creative and was a talented builder. He decorated his home with flare, built an extension to the existing house and remodeled the bathroom with the help from friends. He enjoyed sharing his home with others and will be remembered for his generous serving of good food, drink and Jimmy Buffet. His biggest passion was creating glass art, both mosaics and fused. Many of his friends and family members were recipients of his pieces.
Troy passed away on Thursday, April 19, 2012 at the age of 48. He is survived by his wife Teri; his children, Tanner, and Taya; his mother, Sardi Bowyer; his son, Caleb; his granddaughter’s, Kyla and Brenen; his brother Martin and his sister, Cynthia. He leaves behind a multitude of good friends and extended family too numerous to mention, all of whom will miss him dearly.
At Troy’s request, no memorial service will be held, but a celebration of his life will be on Saturday, May 12, 2012 starting at noon at their home in Sandy.