Mr. Elwyn Kay Peckham

December 5, 1929 in Watertown, South Dakota, and after 91 generous years, passed away in

the early morning on June 28, 2021--the first of four siblings in the Peckham family. With the

Great Depression ravaging the country, the Peckhams gathered their few belongings, a $150

fortune, and their remaining optimism, shoved it all into a 1926 Hupmobile purchased for $80,

and traveled westward to California in the search of a stable life. At the time Elwyn was only 3

years old, with younger sisters Donna and Betty being 2 and 1 respectively; the last sibling,

Charles, born in San Francisco, would not arrive until after countless automobile breakdowns

along their journey. The family finally settled in Sonora, California.

Working for his father who founded the “Sonora Daily” newspaper in 1938, Elwyn entered the

workforce in the 3rd grade as a paperboy. He worked six days a week until the 8th grade, only

ever being truant for a basketball game and one severe fever, where he fell asleep in a field of

tall grass. When his (two!) days of delinquency weren’t getting the best of him, Elwyn’s route

covered 120 subscribers in downtown Sonora, and 90 subscribers in Jamestown, which was 3

miles of hitchhiking or bike riding down the road--coverage like that could rival T-Mobile’s

network today.

While attending Sonora Union High School, Elwyn was on the basketball and football teams,

sang in the boys chorus, participated in the dramatic arts group, qualified for the Scholastic

Honors Society, and was president of his senior class. He graduated in 1948 as one of 90 in his

senior class. After a year in the Naval Reserves, Elwyn would attend UC Berkeley from 1949 to

1953, but like many others, his studies would be cut short as he pursued a family with Mary

Dianne O’Donnell. Elwyn would raise 5 sons with Dianne: Anthony, Samuel, David, Ben, Daniel.

Their last son, Arron, having survived only a few days.

As a rugged and passionate outdoorsman, Elwyn would take his sons on beautifully gruelling

backpacking trips to the High Sierras, Half-Dome, Mt. Whitney, and many others. His crowning

achievement is undoubtedly the treacherous journey to summit Mt. Sill--it would take Elwyn and

his family three attempts, truly the pinnacle of his adventuring career.

When he wasn’t exposing his family and himself to a lack of oxygen and altitude sickness,

Elwyn served as a Yellow Cab co-op driver and part owner in San Francisco for 21 years.

Elwyn’s ashes will rest with his mother and father at Shadow Mountain Cemetery in Sonora,

California. He will be remembered by his sister Betty, brother Charles, sons David, Daniel and

Anthony, 6 grandchildren, 6 great grandchildren and a close personal friend Louise Takeuchi.

Through them, Elwyn’s spirit of adventure, compassion, integrity, and generosity lives on.