Obituaries : * C. Orville Wahlgren; Hardware Merchant

Camarillo resident C. Orville Wahlgren, a retired hardware merchant, died Thursday. He was 87.

Born May 19, 1908, in Balaton, Minn., Wahlgren grew up in South Dakota before moving to San Francisco where he came to own McKillop’s Hardware. Wahlgren moved to Ventura County in 1965, where he retired. He liked to read, enjoyed going to the movies and loved his family.

“He was a great guy who enjoyed every one of his 87 years,” said his grandson, Jeff Dodds of Camarillo. “Everybody liked him. He was a guy who never met a stranger.”

Wahlgren was a more than 50-year member of Camarillo Masonic Lodge 824 and a member of the Order of DeMolay since 1925.

Wahlgren’s wife of 52 years, Dorothy, died in 1992. Wahlgren is survived by a daughter, Kathy Dodds of Camarillo; three grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Arrangements are being handled by Pierce Brothers Griffin Mortuary of Camarillo.