Donald Arthur Nadeau

When he was 12 years old the family moved from Olympia to Bainbridge Island and onto Fort Ward prior to the outbreak of World War 2. He and his brother Jim had a terrific time on the radio station. Dad used to tell me stories about all the fun they had – doing the Queen’s arms with the marines, marching in formation (although at a distance) and helping them load ammunition belts. Uncle Jim and dad were official airplane spotters on the radio station during the war.

Dad was an athlete most of his life. He played sports in High School and was a member of the Bainbridge High School basketball team that won the state championship in 1948. He later took up competitive tennis and played into his 80’s.

A Korean War Veteran - Dad enlisted in the Navy in 1950 and was subsequently shipped to Guam as a Communications Technician. He spent 18 months on Guam, several months in Hawaii then honorably discharged in 1954.

Dad loved being a pilot. That is the reason we moved from Washington to California in 1957. He wanted to get a job as a commercial airline pilot. Unfortunately, it was not to be – no one was hiring at that time. He did, however, manage to get a job at Hughes Aircraft Company. He had a 31 year career as a Financial Analyst retiring in 1988. He built his own airplane with a couple of partners and helped other friends build two more.

Dad did the dad thing when it came to us kids. He taught us how to tie our shoes, ride a two wheel bicycle, how to swim, drive a car, fix a flat tire, change the oil in the car and all about money. He taught us how to save, what interest is and about compounding interest. We knew the value of a dollar. My mom and dad provided for us but when we wanted something extra – say a bike or roller skates – he would approve but not pay for the whole thing. He would pay for half and we would pay for the other half.

He never stopped learning always questing for knowledge. He earned his college degree in Business Management in 1968. He took classes and became a Certified Airplane Inspector. He once read a book on Buddhism just because he wanted to know more about it. He read about someone building model airplanes out of aluminum cans. So what did he do? He took orders for specific types of planes, designed and built them and gave them away. Dad also took an oil painting class and painted many beautiful pictures. If that wasn’t enough, he then built a bird house and hung it from the eave of his garage. The birds found it and raised several sets of chicks over a few years. He couldn’t leave the bird house as is – he replaced one of the sides with acrylic so he could see inside the nesting box. In his later years Dad took up leather working. He made ID wallets, checkbook covers, bi-fold wallets and bookmarks. He would custom design the art work included on each item, tool it, dye it, stitch it and gift it to the person he made it for.

In dad’s older age he still valued exercise. He mapped out a one mile walking route that he walked daily. He proudly reported to his doctors that he exercised 150 minutes every week. When he started slowing down a couple of years ago and needed the support of a walker he continued to walk as far as he could.

I was so very lucky to have had my dad for 95 almost 96 years. I relished the time I spent with him and miss him a lot. When a friend of dads heard about his passing she wrote to me and said, “Heaven got another good one”. She is so right

I want to thank you all for coming. It means a lot to me that you are here. I want to extend special thanks to dad’s caregivers – those angels on earth who treated dad like family and made our lives so much better – Marita, Wilma Lydia and Joanne. I want to acknowledge and thank my sister-in-law Jane. She was always there as my backup taking over when I couldn’t be there. She was integral to helping make dad’s last years happy ones. A extra special thanks to my husband Jim. My rock and guiding light through all of this. I couldn’t have made this journey without any of them.