Renfrow survived Japanese capture and thrived here

Integrity immediately came to mind when Winnie Comstock-Carlson talked Wednesday about her recently deceased father, Clyde Renfrow, of Nevada City.

The former miner, prisoner of war, surveyor and fishing fly maker died April 17 after a lengthy battle with Parkinson’s Disease. He was 92.

“He wasn’t really an outgoing person,” Comstock-Carlson said Wednesday. “What I remember most was his honesty and integrity.

“He never lied — he always fessed up,” Comstock-Carlson said. “He was a model for people’s integrity.”

He was born in Canada in 1916, and he worked at the Sixteen-To-One Mine in Alleghany as a boy after moving with his family to Northern California.

Renfrow’s widow, Ruth Renfrow, of Nevada City, said she was still too upset to talk much about her husband.

They met in the Philippines while he was on a mining job and married in 1941, just two weeks before the Japanese invaded. The Renfrows spent the next two years on the run in the jungle to escape the Japanese.

They often were with William and Margaret Moule, founders of Moule Paint and Glass in Grass Valley, who died in an auto accident in 1989. Mr. Moule worked at the same mine as Renfrow in the Philippines.

The escape experience caused Moule to write a book called “God’s Arms Around Us,” which featured Renfrow.

“It was years before they talked about it with us,” Comstock-Carlson said of herself, sister Suellen Brattin of Nevada City and brother Willie Renfrow of Kansas. “Willie was born in a prisoner of war camp and I was conceived in the camp.”

The Renfrows decided to stop running and surrender when Ruth was pregnant with Willie. They ended up in the same prisoner camp as the Moules, according to Jim Moule, who now runs the family business.

They all survived and came back to the Grass Valley-Nevada City area in 1945.

Back in the states, Renfrow spent time healing from tuberculosis and the ravages of being a prisoner of war. Comstock-Carlson said one video she has seen of those times shows her father emaciated from the experience.

After recovering , Renfrow started a fishing tackle shop out of his basement in Nevada City. He soon became well-known in Northern California fishing circles and was proficient at tying flies.

After many years, Renfrow decided to take another professional turn and became a surveyor and forester. The Parkinson’s Disease halted that career in 1995.

“He was a hard-working surveyor,” said Jim Moule. “He always got the tough jobs where no one had surveyed for 100 years.

“The Renfrows and my parents played bridge almost every Saturday night when I was growing up.”

A memorial gathering will be held for good friends and relatives at noon on May 3, at the Eskaton Village clubhouse in Grass Valley. They are invited to share his memory with a story or a simple note at the service.

To contact Senior Staff Writer Dave Moller, e-mail dmoller@theunion.com or call 530-477-4237.