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Obituaries

January 30, 2002
Obituaries
Harvey G. Nelson Harvey G. Nelson, 82, passed away in his sleep on Thursday, January 24, 2002.Mr. Nelson was born in South Shaftsbury, Vermont on October 6, 1919, the second son of Robert and Doshea Beckley. Orphaned at the age of 8, he spent the next six years at Father Flanagan’s Boys Town in Nebraska. At age 14 he was adopted from Boys Town by Oscar and Lula Nelson of Sioux City, Iowa. He graduated from Tucson Senior High School in Tucson, Arizona in 1937 and was a member of the ROTC unit there.Mr. Nelson married Geraldine Alvey of Sioux City in October 1940. He enlisted in the U.S. Army immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and served throughout World War II in the South Pacific with the Army Air Force. He was discharged in November of 1945 and was awarded the American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one Bronze Star, World War II Victory Medal, and the World War II Honorable Service Lapel Button.After World War II he pursued higher education under the GI Bill and graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. In his final year at the university he was admitted to membership in the Eta Kappa Nu Association, an honorary engineering society. He was then employed for 16 years at the Santa Susana facility of North American Rocketdyne, where he worked on rocket engines, including the Saturn engines that propelled the first astronauts to the moon. He became an engineering manager at Santa Susana, and was responsible for building four of the engine test facilities at Santa Susana.Mr. Nelson greatly enjoyed hunting and fishing, and playing chess. He was an avid Civil War buff, accumulating a library of books devoted to that period in history.Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Geraldine; four sons, Bob of Dublin, Calif., Jim of Blackfoot, Idaho, John of Los Lunas, New Mexico, and Mike of Wellington, Nevada; two daughters, Carol Aker of Moorpark and Shelley Boyd of Ventura; 20 grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; his sister Zilphia Batson of Porter, Texas; four nieces and one nephew.Graveside services were held January 29 at Santa Paula Cemetery.Arrangements under the direction of Pierce Brothers Stetler Mortuary, Santa Paula.Deborah Loewen
Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, January 30 at 2 p.m. in the East Bayou Baptist Church in Lafayette, Louisiana for Deborah Loewen, age 51, the former Deborah Hester who died on Sunday, January 27, 2002 at her Lafayette, LA residence.Entombment will be in the Fountain Memorial Mausoleum.Survivors include husband, David M. Loewen of Lafayette, Louisiana; two daughters, Carrie S. Loewen and Candi L. Schmidt, both of Lafayette; two sisters, Pam Pennington and Diane Hayes, both of San Miguel, California; and one brother, Scott Brown of Arizona. She was preceded in death by her parents, Darwin and Beverly Topp Hester, and one brother, Daniel Brown.A resident of Lafayette for 27 years, Deborah was a member of the East Bayou Baptist Church of Lafayette, Louisiana.Memorial contributions in Deborah’s name may be made to Hospice of Acadiana, 2600 Johnston St., Suite 200, Lafayette, LA 70503, or St. Jude Children’s Hospital, Attn: Memorial Dept., 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.Arrangements have been entrusted to Martin & Castille Funeral Home, Inc. of Lafayette, LA, (337) 234-2311.