Happy 100th Birthday
Born on February 29, 1916 in Salt Lake City, Del spent his first years in Park City where his father was a silver miner. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1926 where his father found permanent work as a carpenter at Warner Brothers Studios.
As a boy he dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player – most boys of that era did. When he was 12, he and his pals saw Babe Ruth play at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. What a treat! The cost of a ticket was just 40 cents.
Del graduated Lincoln High School in 1934, after which he worked for the CCC and then became a sheet metal fabricator. He married Esther Ott a short time later, and was content with his life until his brothers-in-law, Lawrence Ott and Delbert Carlton, started needling him to join the fire department. “You won’t even be able to pass the entrance exam,” they chided. Well, what could any respectable man do but accept the challenge. He took the test and passed.
Del was working at Fire Station 1 on Pasadena Ave when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. Some of the fireman spent both day and night on the roof of the station waiting for an attack. These were anxious times. Within a few months he received his draft notice. Having been with the FD only a few months he was ineligible for deferment, and instead of being drafted into the Army, he enlisted in the Navy. Once the Navy found out he could work with sheet metal they made him a Metalsmith 2nd class Construction and Repair.
He served with the Navy for 3½ years in the Pacific Theater on the USS Prince Georges, an AP165/AK224 troop transport ship. He was transferred to an ARDC8 floating dry dock in Pearl Harbor and from there he traveled on the USS Arkansas to Bremerton, WA where he was discharged. He was given a train ticket to get home to LA. Although a sleeping berth would have been a luxury for the long trip, he gave his to a young mother and infant and took a seat instead. He is that kind of guy.
After the war Del returned to his career as a fireman. There were many tense moments as well as light hearted ones; once while assisting a women out of a 3rd story window she managed to get her skirt over his head as she descended the ladder or the time Del had to jump off a ladder as it sank into an old septic tank buried beneath him. He served the Department for 29 years, retiring in 1970. He has fond memories of being a fireman and still keeps in touch with his old buddies.
Transcending his life as a fireman was his role as husband to the “love of his life” Esther. Del met her while dancing at the Belasco Dance Studio in LA. She was a great dancer and he was taken by her. They dated for a year before marrying in 1938. Their first son Donald was born in 1943 and second son Robert in 1946. Del and Esther were happily married for 71 years. They loved traveling by car throughout the US and traversed it three or four times. They also belonged to a square dancing club and danced until they were 90. Sadly Esther passed away in 2009, and although Del misses her, it did not stop him from traveling with family to Alaska and the Panama Canal.
Until recently Del was an avid woodworker making wood bowls and oodles of toys for family and friends. He made beautiful roll top desks, chairs and tables. Now days he enjoys remaining in sunny SoCal, playing bridge and visiting with family and friends.
By Susan Brittingham