Virgil McClosky, a businessman in suburban Detroit who fell in love with Chelan on a cross-country trip in 1971 and moved his family there not long after, died March 18, 2021, at his home above Lake Chelan. He was 92.
Mr. McClosky died of natural causes and surrounded by family in the house he and wife Frances built overlooking the business they had owned and operated, Cove Marina, on the South Shore 12 miles from town.
Virgil Mitchell McClosky was born Sept. 11, 1928, in Layland, West Virginia, the youngest of the 11 children of Russian-Polish immigrants Michael and Frances McClosky. He moved to the Detroit area as a teenager.
He met Frances Maria Dula in Melvindale, at Melvindale High School, where they graduated in 1947. He attended Wayne University for two years while working at a dairy and restaurant during the school year and on Great Lakes freighters between terms. After a year as a fireman, he was drafted into the Army and served in Germany as a Morse code operator.
Virgil and Frances married on April 19, 1953. In Allen Park, another Detroit suburb, they started a family and founded Frances Market, a thriving neighborhood grocery. He also established and ran a catering service, plus Alwick Drugs and Virgil’s Dairy Bar, which specialized in burgers and milkshakes. Frances helped with the thriving businesses while also raising their daughter and five sons.
The family enjoyed cross-country car trips in the summers, and it was on one of those treks that they visited Chelan. Captured by the surrounding beauty, Virgil decided that would be their new home.
They bought the Cove Marina in 1972. Life was busy, with Virgil, Frances and their now-teenage sons running boat moorage, a convenience store, a restaurant, a bar, motel rooms and a boat repair shop. They also ran a charter business taking sightseers up the lake to Stehekin and taking diners from Manson across the lake to their restaurant.
After they sold the marina in 1990, Virgil and Frances started their retirement by seeing America from their RV for a few years. Once they were back, Virgil could not handle retirement, so he developed and sold residential lots, which kept him active and outside for the rest of his days.
Virgil was preceded in death by son Stephen and by 10 brothers and sisters: Stella; Nellie, Bertha, Mary, Helen, Joseph, Sophia, Frances, Stanley and Walter.
He is survived by Frances; daughter Jane (Gary) Schleppenbach; and sons Doug (Carole); Carl (Linda); Tom (Ulla Cantila); and Mark (Edee) McClosky. He leaves 19 grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and two great-great grandkids.
Plans for a service have been postponed by the pandemic.
Services are under the direction of Precht Rose Chapel of Chelan.
