Henry Charles Broom's Obituary
Hank passed away peacefully into the arms of our Lord on January 21st at the age of 88, surrounded by his loving family. He died of lung complications after a very short stay at the hospital. He is survived by his beloved wife of 58 years, Marilyn, son Jeff (Debbie), daughter Marcia (Jason); five grandchildren Stacy (Phil), Jenifer, Jonathan (Sheila), Bryan and Joel, and two great-granddaughters Riley and Sophia. He is also survived by his brother Ron (Belle) of Yakima, two sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law and many nieces, nephews and cousins.Hank was born December 13, 1916 in Yakima, WA. He graduated from Washington State College in 1943 with a degree in Civil Engineering. He worked for more than thirty years for the U.S. Geological Survey in Tacoma as a hydraulic engineer, retiring in 1974. He was a Life Member of the Tacoma Elks Lodge #174 and the Royal A. Gove Masonic Lodge. He enjoyed traveling, camping, dancing and wintering in Arizona, but most of all working in his garden and around his home and being with his family.A memorial service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 27th in the Mountain View Valley Chapel. Memorials may be sent in his name to your favorite charity.The Life and Times of Hank BroomHank was born in Yakima, WA on December 13, 1916. He was the middle son, four years younger than Pat and six years older than Ron. The three boys lived with their Mom and Dad in a quiet neighborhood with a nice yard, a grape arbor and vegetable garden. Hank was the first son born to the family when they were in the US. George and Mabel gave birth to Pat while they were still in England, prior to immigrating to the States in October of 1912. So, I guess Hank was the first natural born American in the Broom family.Hank and his brothers didnÂ't talk a lot with us about their early lives, but we do know of some significant events that affected his growing years. When he was playing football at the age of 12, he missed the Â"catchÂ" and ended up with the point of the football in his eye. This blinded him in the right eye for most of his life, until he had a lens replacement in his 60Â's and was able to see with both eyes. To complicate the eye injury, he was run over by a truck (couldnÂ't see too well when he wasnÂ't used to single vision), which broke his back and required him to be bedridden in a full body cast for six months. No more failures to look in all directions that we know of. He always learned pretty fast.We know that Hank loved mechanical things from an early age. Whether bicycles, cars or anything that could be taken apart and put back together Â- he loved them. He has told us about his model T and Model A rigs (we wish heÂ'd kept them for us) and how he loved to tinker with them. We even know he had a motorcycle, an Indian, because when Jeff got a Harley he was quick to let us know that it sure wasnÂ't as good as the original American cycle (wish heÂ'd kept that, too).We also know that he started to acquire some gardening skill from his Dad, who we knew as Poppa. We know that one of the vegetables that Poppa grew was Scarlet Runner Beans. Hank reminded us about how Poppa would sit with his pocketknife and string and slice the beans. That became one of HankÂ's jobs, in addition to peeling potatoes under the sink with his dog Dandy. He also had the job of washing dishes, which he made more interesting by whipping up suds with the egg-beater. Banda did most of the work around the house and child rearing besides teaching piano and violin out of their home. And Hank was a good helper to her when he wasnÂ't working with Poppa. His work with Poppa taught him more than he ever wanted to know about coal. They had a coal furnace and Poppa worked as a foreman for FosseenÂ's in Yakima, a coal and building supply distributor. So it was natural for Hank to work there, too. It didnÂ't take long to figure out that shoveling coal and loading boxcars was not something he wanted to do for the rest of his life. So when he decided to try for a college education, he went to the only place you could get a decent education in the US Â- Pullman, WA. In fact, it is still the only place you can get a really good education according to most of his descendents.At WSC, Hank focused his attention on engineering (as far as we know Â- he didnÂ't share about lots of other normal college activities). Engineering was pretty natural for him, with his curiosity about how things were made, how they worked what supported them and so on. He also played clarinet in the WSC marching and concert bands. He made extra money giving haircuts to the other guys in Stimson Hall. He graduated in 1943 and took a job in Tacoma working for the US Geological Survey.His job with the USGS took him all over the state, surrounding states and even Washington DC Â- but those things come a little later in his story. He worked primarily with surface water and spent time measuring streams, rivers, lakes, snow pack Â- anything that would have an effect on potential floods and power.During his early post-college years, he liked to roller skate and dance, when he had the time, and those were pretty good places to look for girls. On one of his excursions, he met our mom. As she tells it, he tried to talk her into getting him a date with her friend, Mary Jane. But after he met Marilyn, something changed. He didnÂ't care too much whether he got a date with Mary Jane or not. Instead, he started ice-skating, dancing and dating Marilyn.They got engaged and married in a double wedding with MarilynÂ's sister, Lois. The year was 1947. Lois had fallen for this sailor, Chuck, and the four of them decided to start this marriage adventure together. Guess it worked pretty well, since the four of them celebrated 57 anniversaries together and almost made it to 58. Unbelievable. But we are a little ahead of the story, again.Hank and Marilyn bought some property and built a house on Â"AÂ" Street in Tacoma. Much of the work was done by Hank, under the guidance of a master builder who made sure everything was done correctly. Hank learned a lot about every aspect of building Â- water, electrical, interiors, exteriors and everything in-between. He knew where everything was in that house and how everything was done. Because of that knowledge, he could fix whatever went wrong in it. And he did. There is no question he was a fix-it guy.Mom and Dad had a son and daughter, born in 1950 and 1952 respectively. Jeff and Marcia grew up in the Tacoma house learning how to work in the yard, grow vegetables in the garden and do all the things you can do in a rural neighborhood with a big yard. We spent six months in Washington DC and two years in Boise, Idaho when work took Dad there. The rest of the time we lived in Tacoma.Our family took regular excursions to local ski areas (Paradise with the rope tows), campgrounds throughout Idaho and Washington (Spirit Lake at Mt. St. Helens provided particularly good camping and water skiing with the trailer and car top boat). Much of the time was spent cooking, singing and talking around the campfire with family and close friends.Jeff and Marcia grew up and eventually left home (both of them graduating from WSU, naturally -Dad would certainly have no Huskies in his family). Jeff married Debbie and Marcia married Gary, and they both started their own families. Mom and Dad found themselves with an empty nest. So, in 1974, Dad retired from the USGS with a great pension and Mom and he were able to travel.And travel they did! They went to Hawaii and they toured the US in their 5th wheel trailer and two motor homes, multiple times. They went to Europe and traveled in both England and on the continent. They took a cruise through the Panama Canal. You name it; they did it. But their love ended up being in Arizona where they became Â"snowbirdsÂ". They went to Mesa every year for thirty years, sometimes just in the spring an other years in both the fall and spring. They planted their 5th wheel at space H118 in Trailer Village so they had a permanent residence in their southern location. They did all kinds of activities at the park: dancing, rock polishing, wood working, golf, swimming, partying with friends and just having fun. They traveled the southwest frequently, often with Lois and Chuck Â- the foursome was always together. MomÂ's other sister and her husband, Joyce and Lloyd, also bought a place in Mesa. So the six of them were able to spend lots of great retirement time together. They especially liked the Â"freeÂ" annual anniversary meal they got at a Mesa restaurant for being married over 50 years. Life was very good.During their retirement years, Gramma and Grampa had 5 grandkids Â- two with Marcia and three with Jeff and Deb. When Gramma and Grampa werenÂ't traveling, the grandkids got to go camping with them, and visiting them in Arizona. They have an abundance of memories about making fires (itÂ's not smoky), building projects, fixing things, going to amusement parks, seeing the special tourist attractions and just loving their Gramma and Grampa.Gramma and Grampa were very healthy until very recently. Grampa had problems with an aneurysm and carotid artery plus back problems that had plagued him most of his life. Gramma had a pacemaker in 2002. But for the most part, they were really healthy. They worked in the yard constantly and that work produced much joy for them. Even when Grampa was in the hospital in San Diego, his history of perseverance and fighting spirit was always evident. During his recovery from septic shock and flesh-eating bacteria Gramma was his constant support and encourager, his nurse, transporter and even his hands when he needed to fix something and couldnÂ't hold it with his weakened fingers. Grampa never complained about all the hardship he endured during that recovery and never complained about the pain that must have occurred. Gramma and Grampa, what a pair.Those two names just fit together, just like the people. None of us ever thinks about one without the other. They were made for each other and will always be a wonderful example to us about what marriage is really supposed to be. They werenÂ't two people, they were one. Just with different faces and different things they did (and maybe different attitudes, sometimes).We will miss our Dad and Grampa. But, it wonÂ't be too long until we are together with him again. In the meantime, I guess weÂ'll just have to love Gramma more and remember who he was and how much we loved him.
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