David L. Eaton

David Eaton’s Life David Eaton was born on January 11, 1932 and raised in North Minneapolis by his first generation German mother, Josephine Eaton (nee Frohnauer), and his ninth generation father, Leo Frances Eaton whose family arrived in America in 1632. They raised him in a modest, 2 bedroom cape cod house. He was the eldest of 5 children. He has 3 brothers and a sister, Jim, Joan, Butch and Tim. Early Youthful Adventures Dave was an adventurer from the beginning and many who have known him through his life have stories of his exploits. These included a morning walk across the frozen Mississippi to Nicollet Island and an afternoon return from the island on dangerous, sun-softened ice that he liken to walking on jello. When he was growing up, he regularly enjoyed the freedom of exploring Minneapolis riding the streetcars throughout town. Even as a youth he was interested in Chemistry. As a boy, he had a chemistry set, now documented as one of the top 10 most dangerous toys ever made. This designation may be because he and other youths like him accidently created explosions in their bedrooms. But in his case the excitement of learning, testing, and creating lead to a career in Chemistry. As a Young Adult When Dave was 18 he attended St. Thomas Aquinas College in Minneapolis, working nights as a janitor to put himself through school. He graduated in 1954 at 22. By that time he had met a young lady, Margaret Callahan, on a elevator. Soon after they married and he took a job in Ames Iowa and began studying for his masters degree in Chemistry. However, he and his wife Margaret began their family soon after moving to Ames and he chose to delay his plans for a that degree. He moved east to New Jersey and began working for the Atomic Energy Commission. In the mid-fifties, his company sent him to Arizona for work on the Satellite Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP) program. He was sent to troubleshoot why a certain component of the satellite kept exploding (does anyone see a theme starting here?). He isolated the problem with a hinge component, and got the project back on schedule. Solving this problem involved being present in several low-grade nuclear incidents (also known as explosions). A favorite story he often told family members involved going to back to his motel room after one such incident, slipping between the sheets and seeing a green glow emanating all around him. Although his children believe this was a sign of alien activity, he was in fact experiencing a phenomenon called “St. Elmo’s fire” and Dave delighted in seeing that unique and rare physical reaction happen around him. The Prime of His Work Life By the early sixties, his family grew by 3 additional children, Pat, Jeanne and Joe. He took a job with Corning Glass in upstate New York and moved his family to Big Flats near the Chemung river. He stayed in this area for over 25 years adding one more son to his family, Andy. While his children grew up in their Big Flats home, Dave took every opportunity to expose them to the world and outdoor activities. Camping became the educational outing of choice and he explored much of the US from his Ford station wagon with 1 wife, 5 kids, a portable camping box kitchen and suitcases full of clothes stuffed inside and on top. When at home, he transformed his yard into gardens growing vegetables and fruit trees. Often he would spend evenings down in his basement on a shortwave radio he built contacting other amateur radio operators on the air waves. He loved seeing how far away he could find another person to talk with. While in Big Flats his children experienced the man he was, a loving father, an avid outdoorsman, a teacher of young men and a generous community volunteer. He was active in his church, volunteering to serve and read scriptures and he volunteered with the Boy Scouts training many young men how to survive in the outdoors. Many remember Hurricane Agnes that flooded the entire Chemung Valley river system in 1972. Dave spent most of his waking hours for weeks distributing much needed food and water supplies to flooded out families. He and his young sons helped friends and acquaintances gut and rebuild their homes. His children and visiting family members remember his work with Corning Glass. He always brought people up to his office headquarters to view glass being made and walk through the museum of historic glass artifacts. But what they remember most was his work developing the tiles for the NASA shuttle spacecraft to prevent the vehicle from burning up upon re-entry. Its too bad he did not also work on the glue to hold the tiles on the shuttle as they kept falling off during re-entry. Dave left the Corning area to work for a few more years at several other companies in the west. Reaching Out To People Dave retired in 1999 while living in Ankeny, Iowa. At the time, one of his grandsons convinced his wife, Margaret, to take a puppy. Dave quickly took this puppy, Lady, under his wing and began training her. It became clear pretty quickly that this dog could qualify for Mensa, the high IQ society (according to Dave). His children often teased him that he had more pictures of Lady and her exploits in 5 years than he did of all 5 of his children over the course of 50 years. Dave taught Lady needed obedience skills and dog etiquette to work with hospital patients, abused and autistic children and children needing help to improve their reading skills. This became the focus of his retirement life until Lady passed away suddenly in 2005. It was the only time his children remember seeing him heartbroken and tearful. When he moved back to Minnesota to live in the Arbors at White Bear Lake he became active in the community coordinating social events, fishing outings and weekly card games. This home and the people he considered his new family was his daily delight until he passed shortly after 2PM on Sunday, March 1, 2015. David was 83 years old and led a full, active life right up to a few weeks before his death. We will all remember him as an exceptional human being living life his way. EATON David L. Age 83 of the Arbors in White Bear Lake Survived by wife, Margaret (nee Callahan); 5 children, Peggy Eaton of Laurel, MD, Patrick Eaton of Garden Grove, CA, Jeanne Eaton of Minneapolis, MN, Joseph (Cindy) Eaton of Idaho Springs, CO and Andrew Eaton of Denver, CO; 3 grandchildren, Michael, Thomas and Rachel; 2 great-grandchildren, Anthony and Joseph; siblings, Jim (Pat) Eaton of New Hope, MN, Joan (Bill) Butler of Forest Lake, MN, Butch Eaton of Emily, MN and Tim (Sandy) of St. Paul, MN; many other family and friends. Mass of Christian Burial 12PM (noon) on Saturday, March 7, 2015 at St. Mary of the Lake Catholic Church, 4741 Bald Eagle Ave., White Bear Lake with visitation one hour prior to Mass at the church. Interment in Colorado at a later date.