Fabien T Dufau

My father, Fabien, was born almost 101 years ago in Bakersfield, California. His parents, Pierre and Marie Dufau (nee Goursau), arrived in San Francisco in 1907, met in San Francisco and were married in 1913. Fabien spoke French at home and did not learn English until the first grade.

As his father, a cook, baker and pastryman, changed jobs often for various reasons, my dad lived in many places in the central valley growing up. He told me he was always the new kid is school. Stability came in High School, where he was in the band, played football and graduated from high school in South San Francisco. After that he attended San Mateo Junior College and graduated with a two year degree in business.

Pierre helped to get him job at DuPont, and he worked filling paint cans from a spigot. Probably the most boring work imaginable. Nonetheless, living with Mama and Papa, he was able to lend his parents $1000 to help buy home.

In June, 1941, six months before Pearl Harbor, he entered a civilian pilot training program. It was later taken over by the Army Air Corps so he was a commissioned pilot at the outbreak of the war. He spent the next five years as a transport pilot moving soldiers, supplies and airplanes to various places. He was based in Cairo and flew throughout the Middle East and North Africa and made regular flights to Teheran, India, Italy and Morocco, among other places.

After the war he remained in the reserves, retiring as a Lt. Colonel in 1961. For most of the time when my two brothers and I were growing up he was in construction and for the last ten years, before he retired in 1978, he was a zoning inspector for the Ventura County Planning Department.

My mother loved to travel and it wasn't long before he caught the bug too. They traveled around the world on the Rotterdam, walked the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids in Egypt and made several trips to Europe, England and Mexico, making many new friends on each trip. After my mother passed away in 2001, dad continued to travel with me and his grandchildren to places like Hawaii, Alaska, and Russia. His last big trip was to Chicago for my son's graduation in June 2015.

His many friends and relatives here in California, France and elsewhere all agree that he was kind, considerate and very much a gentleman.

A Celebration of Fabien’s Life, will take place on Saturday, February 11, 2017, 2:00 P.M., at Ted Mayr Funeral Home, 3150 Loma Vista Road, Ventura, with The Reverend Dan Hull officiating. The United States Air Force will render full military honors.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Ted Mayr Funeral Home. Condolences may be sent to TedMayrFuneralHome.com.