Rafael Olmedo Rangel

Our dearly beloved husband, father, brother, grandfather, and great-grandfather, Rafael ("Raft") Olmedo Rangel, passed away peacefully at home at age 94 on June 27, 2022. He was just three weeks shy of his 95th birthday.

Born in Cueremaro, Guanajuato, Mexico on July 18, 1927, he was brought to the U.S as a baby in 1928, where he was raised in Los Angeles, California, by his father and mother, Rafael Figueroa Rangel and Juana Olmedo Rangel. He was the oldest child in a large, loving family of 12, from which he is survived by two sisters and one brother, and many nieces and nephews.

During his high school years, he helped his father at work after school, and liked to box, dance and hang out with friends. Then turning 18 near the end of World War Two, he was inducted into the Army Air Force in August, 1945, where he served proudly before being honorably discharged in October, 1946.

He then attended Fred Archer School of Photography on the GI Bill, and went into business with a friend for a couple years, later deciding that taking a job at Douglas Aircraft in Purchasing as an Expediter would pay better!

It was at Douglas in the mid-nineteen-fifties that he met and fell in love with his wife, Sharon, who had two little girls from a previous marriage, and they married in 1959. This year, in February, the couple celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary!

By 1962, Raft and Sharon had two baby boys, and were living in Anaheim, California, where Raft proceeded to "climb the ladder" in his new job at North American Rockwell's Autonetics. Always a good provider, he worked there faithfully until 1985, when he retired from the Defense Electronics Operation as a Major Subcontract Administrator. During all those 23 years, he was very proud to have been a part of the NASA Apollo Moon Landing, GPS program, and Space Shuttle program, among others.

Raft's life might sound like "all work, no play", but during those 23 years, Raft played golf every weekend, where it was said he consistently placed his fairway shots less than five feet from the flag. He loved that game, and played until he was 83 years old. He and his family also enjoyed many years attending his mother, Juana's, famous parties, with scores of jolly relatives and friends.

After retiring in 1985, he and Sharon moved to beautiful Carlsbad, California, three miles from the beach, where they lived for 25 happy years, only returning to Orange County (Yorba Linda) in 2011, due to Raft's health problems. Unfortunately, the last ten years of his life were spent mostly as an invalid, but we made the best of it, loving him more than ever. Luckily, by bringing in some male caregivers, we were able to keep him out of a nursing home!

He has always missed his parents and younger siblings who preceded him in death, and had been looking forward to being with them in Heaven. So Godspeed to him!

He is survived by his wife, Sharon; two sons, Rafael B. Rangel and Steven L. Rangel and their spouses; two step-daughters, Ellyn Dubon, and Stefanie Lerer; four granddaughters, Brittany, Alicia, Ashley and Brook. Four great grandsons, Cody, Dallyn, Kaysen, and Tristan. And two great-granddaughters, Kinsley and Cambrie. Also by his three loving siblings, Rose Collier, Rosario Russell; and Reymundo O. Rangel.

Donations for Rafael O. Rangel can be made to a Alzheimer’s or Dementia organization of your choice.

Thank you from the family.