Floyd Vance Heaton

Our dear husband, father, and grandfather was born on December 11, 1923 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Floyd was born to Susie O’Donnell and Floyd Heaton, Sr. He and his other siblings, Bonnie, June, Blaine, Caryl, and Lynn (Wallace) grew up on a farm in the Midwest. He joined the U.S. Navy during WW II and was assigned to a battleship that frequented the Barents Sea and the Aleutian Islands. Upon leaving the Navy, he took advantage of the GI Bill to acquire a higher education degree. Floyd majored in industrial design at the Art Center College in Los Angeles, California and worked at design studios in Chicago and Milwaukee. He was adept at designing products, such as a flashlight and oven hood, that were cost-effective enough to be produced on a mass scale. Industrial design was Floyd’s true professional calling and he excelled in these positions.

While working in Milwaukee, he met Marilyn, and they married on February 27, 1954 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. As a young couple, they moved to Arizona where they lived 16 years for various periods of time in Phoenix, Tempe, Tuba City, and Prescott. While in Tuba City, Floyd and Marilyn adopted Todd Lee when he was 18 months old from the San Carlos Apache Tribe. During that same period, Floyd taught elementary school in the Tuba City Public School System between 1958 to 1963. Later on, he earned his Master’s in Industrial Education from Arizona State University in Flagstaff majoring in Concrete Technology. Floyd landed a job as an industrial designer with the Emerson Electric Company, so he and the family moved to Pomona, California while a new plant was being built in Arizona. During his stint in California, Lisa was born. Once the plant was completed, Floyd returned to Prescott, Arizona and worked as an industrial designer from 1964 to 1970. Wade, the youngest of the three siblings, was born during this period. In 1970, he was hired by the Panama Canal Company (later changed to the Panama Canal Commission under the Carter-Torrijos Treaty) to teach in the Apprentice School where he and his family remained for 26 years. He retired from the Panama Canal Commission in 1986 and in 1996 moved to Temuco, Chile. In 2000, Floyd and Marilyn moved to Tallahassee, Florida. Floyd was blessed with artistic skills from a young age. He designed jewelry, such as bolo ties and belt buckles, in silver and turquoise. He crafted beautiful stained glass hangings and enjoyed black and white photography of people, plants, and driftwood. Floyd won a design competition for a cultural center building in a Guaymi community in rural Panama. The building was designed to blend into the local surroundings while using an innovative technology of a mixture of local earth and concrete to cut costs and encourage sustainable construction practices. He loved trees and planted them in every place that he lived in the United States, Panama, and Chile. While in Tuba City, Arizona, he planted trees around the apartment complex thus making it one of the greenest areas in town. In Panama, he planted hundreds of Persian lime, orange, grapefruit, and macadamia trees on their property that was part of the Blue Mountain Cooperative overlooking the Bay of Panama. He demonstrated his entrepreneurial skills by selling the limes and oranges to the U.S. military commissary. Floyd raised coffee as part of his cooperative agreement with the Blue Mountain Company. He dabbled in raising bees and harvesting honey as gifts to family and friends.

After a protracted struggle with an illness for many years, he passed away on May 10, 2012. His family extends their deepest gratitude to the staff of Brynwood Center in Monticello, Florida for their tender and compassionate care during the three years that he spent there as a resident.

Floyd is preceded in death by his son, Todd Lee (Jane Cayaditto) Heaton; sisters, Bonnie Conklin and June Widman; and brother, Blaine Heaton.

He is survived by his wife, Marilyn Heaton, of Tallahassee, FL; a son, Wade Heaton, of Tallahassee, FL; a daughter, Lisa (Steven Thomson) Heaton, of Olympia, WA; brother, Lynn (Beverly) Heaton of Spokane, WA; sister, Caryl (the late Lester) Bates of South Sioux City, NE; and grandson, Todd Lee Cayaditto of Arlington, VA.

In lieu of flowers, please plant a tree in his memory by filling out your commitment on the United Nation's Billion Tree Campaign website (www.plant-for-the-planet-billiontreecampaign.org/ Getinvolved/) or by donating funds to plant trees through the Nature Conservancy (www.nature.org/).

Arrangements are under the direction of Culley's MeadowWood Funeral Home, Tallahassee, Florida.