David E. Abshire

January 16, 1937 - December 3, 2019

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David E. Abshire was born in Long Beach, CA, on January 16, 1937 to Charles “Abby” and Mary (Brabb) Abshire. He died peacefully in his home in Port Hadlock, WA, on Tuesday evening, December 3, 2019.

David grew up in Onalaska, WA, in a close family that included his brothers, Dennis and Nick. He joined the Navy in 1955 to train as an air traffic controller, and served at Sandpoint Naval Air Station in Seattle until he married Suzanne (Fredericksen) Abshire, and left the Navy to become a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic controller in Tucson, AZ, and later at Lemoore Naval Air Base near Hanford, CA. He retired from the FAA in 1972 and moved his family to Port

Townsend, WA, where he took on several jobs over the years, including bookkeeping for various clients, retail sales at the Port Townsend Washington State Liquor Store, and manager of the paint department at Eccles Nursery.

In 1984, after a divorce from his first wife, and his three children had become adults and had moved on to their own lives, David married Louise (Watson) Abshire, whose first husband had recently died, and took on the role of father, once again, for her three children in Port Hadlock, WA.

David enjoyed wood carving, coin collecting, sailing, model building, kite flying, and gardening. He was an avid reader, and was a prolific writer of short stories. His first book, “True Stories by Grandpa,” illustrated by Louise, was published in 2015 – a collection of some of his charming short stories he had written for his grandchildren.

David is lovingly remembered by his six children, Gillian Gregory, Marc Abshire, Diane Salguero, Tina Thomas, Jenny Carpentier, and Sam Watson, and his wife of 35 years, Louise. He will be dearly missed by his thirteen grandchildren: Chloe, Audrey, Gillian, Grant, Kayla, Sophia, Ethan, Miguel, Jacob, Gabe, Grace, Marco, and Bradán.

The family is organizing a private celebration of life near the end of December.