August 01, 1924 - September 02, 2019
John A Heckard Obituary John Albert Heckard was born in Marshfield, Oregon on August 1, 1924. He was the second child of John Albert Heckard II and Martha Ellen Ayres. He had an older sister, Gertrude, a younger brother, Calvin and a little sister, Dorothy. They all predeceased him. John grew up in Willapa, a rural area of southwest Washington. The family lived in a small, two room house until John was in the fourth grade. John�s job was to be the first one up every morning to blow on the coals in the wood burning cook stove to heat up the house. Later, his parents took out a $500 loan to buy a 7 1/2 acre parcel of land and his father built a four bedroom house on it. They didn�t have the final hardwood floors finished for quite some time and so when it came to sweeping the floors, they just swept the dirt and sawdust into the knotholes of the sub-flooring. They had a cow named Liza for milk and chickens for eggs. Their garden supplied them with all kinds of vegetables. They caught salmon in their favorite fishing hole on the Willapa River and even had fresh fried salmon for breakfast many times with their hotcakes. John and his brother, Calvin, had many adventures together from fishing and hunting deer and elk to peeling cascara bark from cascara trees to dry and sell. The bark was used for making medicine. They trapped mink, muskrats and weasels and sold the fur to Sears Roebuck and Co in Seattle. John bought a violin in the seventh grade and a clarinet in high school. He played his clarinet at several grange hall dances and his little sister�s wedding. His favorite song to play was �The Beer Barrel Polka.� John was in Future Farmers of America and was class valedictorian of his high school class of 28 students in 1942. After attending one year of college at Washington State University during WWII, John was drafted. He joined the navy and was sent to boot camp where he was later selected for the Navy V-12 Officer�s Training Program. He attended one year at Idaho State University then was transferred to the University of Washington for another year of Navy training. Upon graduation in 1946, he received a Bachelor of Engineering degree and an officer�s commission. He was assigned to a Navy Patrol Craft in San Diego and served as Engineering and Communications Officer. After his tour of Navy duty, he completed another year at the University of Washington, receiving a B.S. in Civil Engineering. He had a successful civil engineering career of over 30 years with the Washington State Department of Transportation. He was the Project Engineer on the Seattle Freeway (Seneca St to Olive Way), District Location-Design Engineer on the Issaquah to North Bend and North Bend By-Pass as well as many other freeways and bridges. John worked at an engineer consulting firm for several years after that, retiring for good in 1988. John was blessed to have shared his life with two wonderful women. He married Mary Ann Siniluoto in 1951 and together they had three children: Linda Barschaw (Jim), John Heckard, and Sharon Walsh (Tom), 4 grandchildren: Ryan Barschaw (Lindsay), Jason Barschaw (Shawnna), Kelsey Walsh, and Jillian Stonehouse (Dakota) and 3 great grandchildren: Rose, Beau and Finley. John was an all American father taking the family on many fun trips including camping, rock hounding, clam digging and visiting relatives. As the project engineer in charge of many highway projects, he loved to �inspect� the new freeways that were not quite open to the public while driving to and from those family adventures. John was predeceased by his wife Mary Ann in 1984 and his son John in 2004. John married Marian Aufderhar in 1988 and loved her two daughters as his own: Connie Skavdahl (Kirby) and Sharon Browne (John). He gained another 5 grandchildren: David Skavdahl (Josie), Lisa Skavdahl, Mark Skavdahl (Vanessa), John Browne (Melissa), and Ryan Browne, and 10 great grandchildren: Noa, Maria, Anika, Micah, Makaio, Kealani, Koa, Chloe, Logan, and Georgia. John had many hobbies over the years including duck carving, painting, writing poetry, coin collecting, wine making, gardening, calligraphy and travel. He knew the name of every tree, plant and bird in the forest. When hiking with his children he would often say �See da cedar?� He and Marian traveled far and wide in his retirement years including trips to China, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the Galapagos Islands, to name a few. John was a faithful member and elder in the Presbyterian church and had a deep faith in God. The angels are singing in heaven and we are so happy that you are hearing clearly the music and song! God bless you Dad! A graveside service will be held on Monday, September 9th at 2:30pm at Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Bellevue, WA. � To plant a beautiful memorial tree in memory of John, please visit our Tree Store. Read more Events SEP 7 Funeral Service Saturday, September 7, 2019 3:00PM Heritage Funeral & Cremation 508 North Government Way Spokane, WA 99224 Get Directions View Map Text Email SEP 2
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