Jerome Durbin's Obituary
Jerome M. Durbin Jerry was born 4/29/1927 in Devils Lake, North Dakota. He died of respiratory arrest 8/9/2011, at St Joseph's Hospital, in Tacoma, Washington. He served as a radio man in the Army Air Corps from 1945 - 1947. He was stationed in Hiroshima shortly after the fall of the atomic bomb. Jerry moved his young family from Eugene, Oregon to Great Falls, Montana in 1954. He found work as a union sheet metal man and later an estimator. He was an ambitious young man, and in 1961 he bought out the shop owner and started his own business. In 1964, he opened a seafood restaurant, The Seven Seas, in Great Falls. The family moved to Tacoma, Washington in 1966, where he worked as an estimator for National Blower. By 1971, he had saved enough money to open his own sheet metal shop. He sold his business, West Pacific Mechanical, in 2001. He grew up on a small farm in North Dakota during the Dust Bowl and Depression years. The family struggled at times to keep food on the table. His father was forced to kill a cow that he had leased from a local banker. When the banker demanded to know why the cow had been killed and butchered, Jerry's father told him that the family had to eat, "lease be damned". Until the mid-thirties, they did without mechanized farm equipment and electricity. Jerry's grandfather installed the first electric lighting in the county. Powered by large lead acid batteries in the barn, they were the wonder of the neighborhood. Barn dances were a relief from the hard work and tedium. Jerry and his brother Bob loved to go together. They danced until almost dawn, and when they arrived home, they would find their father waiting for them in the barn with their work coveralls. They got out of their finery, put on the coveralls, and put in a full day's work. In his later years, he could be a delightful companion. He was a favorite at the nursing home where he spent his last years, joking with the staff, admonishing the ladies who complained too much about the food, and making new friends. He was preceded in death by his lovely wife Clara, and daughter Rebecca Almy. He is survived by son Gregory Durbin, daughter in-law Denise Durbin, daughter Debbie Sweeney, son in-law Lew Sweeney, daughter Diane Anderson, son in-law Mark Anderson, daughter Janet Durbin, seven grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren. The family wishes to thank the staff of Park Rose Care Center in Tacoma, for the excellent care they gave Jerry during the last two years of his life. A graveside service will be held at Mountain View Memorial Park in Lakewood on Monday, August 15, 2011 at 11 AM. A reception will follow in the Mountain View Oak Room.
Arrangements by Mountain View Funeral Home.
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