David Leach Emmons

He was born June 15, 1935, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Phyllis Isabella McMullen and David Barton Emmons. He spent his early years in Cheyenne with his grandmother, Eva Ridgedale McMullen, and at the Colorado Military School in Denver.

In the late 1940s, David and his mother and brother, Donald Robbin Emmons (d. 2014), were among the first boatloads of American military dependents to arrive in occupied Japan, where his stepfather, Stuart Freedman, was stationed. The family lived in a Japanese neighborhood, and David and Don attended Japanese schools and learned to speak the language. In Japan he also began to develop his lifelong interest in electronics and love of ham radio.

After returning to the States in the early 1950s, David again lived with his grandmother, who allowed him a motorcycle at the age of 15, as long as he maintained good grades and a good Sunday School attendance record. He spent his teenage summers riding the American West, traveling extensively through Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Colorado on a WWII Army surplus Harley-Davidson, experiences he never forgot. He also began work on his pilot’s license at about this age.

After an abortive attempt to enlist in the Army at 16 — thwarted by his mother, who contacted his commanding officer when she discovered where he was — he enlisted in the Navy as soon as he was old enough, primarily to receive more training in the budding field of electronics. He was stationed in San Diego, where he served two years as a submariner, aboard the famed sub the Sterlet (featured in the motion picture Submarine Command starring William Holden) and its sister sub the Guitarro. He also played the tuba in the Navy band in San Diego about this time.

After an honorable discharge, he settled in Arkansas near his parents and worked as both a commercial pilot and the only color TV repairman in the town of Fort Smith. By the late 1950s he moved to Florida with his brother, seeking opportunity in the burgeoning aerospace field. Both were hired by the Glenn L. Martin Company, which became the Martin Marietta Corporation (today Lockheed-Martin), a leader in chemicals, aerospace and electronics. David would serve there for 35 years and rose to the rank of senior staff engineer; he holds many of the patents on the guidance system for the Pershing missile and other weapons guidance systems, some still classified.

In Florida he continued to work part-time as a commercial pilot, flying business clients all over the Caribbean, although he joked that he rarely saw more than the airfields in any destination. He also developed a love of scuba diving, and in 1965 helped to sink the famous statue Christ of the Deep at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Key Largo. His love of diving and the Florida Keys led him to partner with treasure hunters in the Keys in the 1970s, developing a new type of magnetometer, which allows metal detection at great depths, and was paid in silver coins discovered with his device.

In Florida he also met and married his wife of 35 years, Marguerite Wooddell Emmons (d. 1996), known as Peggy. They had two daughters who survive him, Mary Frances Emmons (m. Roger Roy) of Orlando, Florida, and Caroline Scott Emmons (m. Tommy Hamilton) of Richmond, Virginia. After Peggy’s death, he met and married Sonia Velez Emmons (née Bermudez), who survives him after 22 years of marriage.

In his long retirement, David continued to enjoy many of the hobbies of his early life — boating, electronics, home computing, simulation flying, ham radio and gun collecting, often of historical pieces that he enjoyed tinkering with. He was a longtime member of the Power Squadron, where he taught sailing and celestial navigation as well as other courses; he also served as a gun safety officer at two Orlando ranges where he was a member.

In addition to his wife and daughters, David is survived by his stepson Sol Anthony Velez (m. Kim Velez) of Cape Coral, Florida, and stepdaughter Emily Velez of Green Bay, Wisconsin; grandchildren Zoe Frances Hamilton; Kieran, Dylan and Ryan Velez; Evan and Alyssa Olson and Mikaela and Aubrey Pahl.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to Creations from the Heart, which makes and donates handmade items to be used by babies, children and families served by Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies in Orlando, Florida. Click for more info: https://www.orlandohealth.com/volunteer-services/winnie-palmer-hospital-volunteer-services/creations-from-the-heart-volunteers