Re: Gold Rush! Northwest Athletes Come Home From Rio Olympics Laden With Medals

mhmele — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 13:32:03 -0000

I would like to see reporting on the ParaOlympics as well. Who are our Northwest ParaOlympians? How are they doing in Rio?

Re: Peter D. Davidson

mhmele — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 12:42:47 -0000

My brother's eulogy at his father's funeral was a great solace. It is posted here:

Hello everyone. For those of you that don’t know me, I am Jim, Pete’s son… they say that most people would
rather be in the coffin than give the eulogy, and I do find it difficult to
talk about my father and get it right in a few words, it was much easier to get
it right in a slide show; the photos remind me of how much family and friends
meant to him, and also of his far ranging talents and interests.

He was a generous giver of time, energy, and resources to anyone who needed help, so there was always a project underway on the
weekends and I was his loyal helper. My earliest memories are in Bayside NY in
the basement where Pop had his workshop. I’d start off on Saturday mornings with
“what are you doing”? and he’d say “riding around the park on a bicycle”. And
then “where are you going?” and he’d say “down to McGillicudies for a short
beer”. Can I go? Sure. He’d put the 55 Ford station wagon in drive and declare
“we’re off! said the monkey when he caught his tail in the lawnmower”. Then we
went to the hardware store and the lumber yard.

As my cousin John said so well at Pop’s 90th birthday party, he was an original
do-it-yourselfer and had no fear of the trades, carpentry, masonry, electricity
and plumbing. He built patios and decks and wheelchair ramps for the rest of
his life. Lots of wheelchair ramps. And like all do-it-yourselfers, his projects were always work-in-progress, mostly
because he was constantly interrupted to build something new for somebody else.
In NYC he never finished his dark room to develop the photos he took, but he
built a play house with an electric stove, 2 soapbox derby cars and a huge
Lionel electric train layout. I was at my cousin Paul’s house a few months ago
and he pointed out the train table in his garage that was hoisted to the
ceiling with a system of pulleys designed by my father in our garage in Novato.
There he built kayaks and ramps and redwood patio furniture for the patio and
deck he built around the swimming pool that he designed for my mother. One of
his classic creations was the locomotive frame this fit over mom’s wheelchair
for Halloween.

At the same time he was in the middle of all
of our activities -- cub scouts, campfire girls, little league, 4H, and young
ambassadors. He was the premier adventure guide for our neighborhood friends
and foreign exchange students making countless trips to the Sierras to go
skiing and backpacking. And he was always building something in his workshop,
inventing something clever to solve a sticky problem.

He was an engineer’s engineer, he didn’t preach or philosophize about life much. During a rough
patch of life when I was 19 he asked me what the stop sign was for at the end
of St. Francis Ave. I told him a stop sign was not needed there, visibility was
good on Center Road, a yield sign would be better. He gave up and went to bed.

I don’t remember him ever asking for help, he was always helping others. It was only in the later years
of his life after retirement (he was 79 years old when he finally retired) that
the do-it-yourselfer couldn’t do everything for himself and I started hearing
him say thank-you a lot. In his younger years he was always saying you’re
welcome.

The message of life he left us was a message of gratitude. If he could have a voice now I know what he’d
say to all of us here today: simply, thank-you.

Re: d@n

mhmele — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:49:23 -0000

Sigh. We are so rich. For so many, so many millions of people...water is dirty and hard to get. This was funny and dear, but it grieved me, too.

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Re: Gold Rush! Northwest Athletes Come Home From Rio Olympics Laden With Medals

Re: Peter D. Davidson

Re: d@n