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David Soren Deitrick
Longtime Sterling resident David Soren Deitrick died Monday, Jan.
13, 2003, from advanced Parkinson's disease at Central Peninsula General
Hospital in Soldotna. He was 81.
Funeral services will be at 1 p.m. Thursday at
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Soldotna. Bishop William R.
Thomas will officiate at the service. Viewing will be one hour prior to services
at the church. Burial will be at Fort Richardson National Cemetery at Fort
Richardson.
Mr. Deitrick was born Aug. 21, 1921, in
Bancroft, Idaho, to Karen Sorenson and John David Taylor. He graduated from Soda
Springs High School in Idaho. He attended Gonzaga College in Spokane, Wash. He
began his service with the U.S. Navy in 1939. He served in World War II and the
Korean War. He also was a survivor of Pearl Harbor and went around the world
with the U.S. fleet twice.
On Sept. 4, 1948, he married June Laird in
Nevada City, Calif., after four years of courtship during his service in the
Pacific and her enlistment in the U.S. Nurses Cadet Corp. They eventually made
their home in California, where he worked for the California Highway Patrol and
California Employment Service. They moved to Alaska in 1962, residing in
Anchorage. They moved to Sterling in 1964. He had worked for the Alaska
Employment Service in Anchorage.
Mr. Deitrick also was the manager of the Kenai
Peninsula and Kodiak Island Employment Service. He most recently worked as a
compressor plant operator at the Swanson oil field, retiring in 1984.
Mr. Deitrick was a member of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, where he had served a mission to Prince
Edward Island in the Canadian Maritimes. He also was a longtime scoutmaster in
Anchorage and on the Kenai Peninsula. Mr. Deitrick received citations for his
longtime service to the state Manpower Planning Council. He also was on the
original hospital board prior to the hospital being built, and he was involved
in raising money and finding where to locate it.
"He loved to work with wood, from toys to
cabinets. He was a football and wrestling star during high school. His favorite
description of himself was, 'I'm just an old sheepherder from Idaho.' He was an
excellent cook since childhood, where he learned from the sheep camps he
maintained," his family said.
Mr. Deitrick was preceded in death by his
sisters, Elva and Dorothy, and brothers, Charles and Ben.
He is survived by his wife, June of Sterling;
children, Robin Michael, David R. Deitrick, Holly Deitrick, Heather Deitrick and
Dana Wilson; grandchildren, Erik, Gordon, Bryce, Kami, Andrew, Elliot, Conrad,
Sean, Megan, Zackery, April, Travis, Savannah, Jesse, Lindsay, Preston, Mason,
Samuel, Madison and McKinley; great-grandchildren, Alexander, Tristan, Drewe,
Katie, Lance and Thor; and sisters, Barbara Wilson, Myrna Lakey and Marianne
Reyers.
Arrangements were made by Peninsula Memorial
Chapel.
Source: Peninsula Clarion, January 15, 2003
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