Obituary of Frank Katcher

Frank Katcher, U.S. Navy and World War II veteran, husband of Vangy Katcher, father of Daryl Katcher and Terry Brown, and a resident of Lodi, California died December 19, 2007 in St Joseph?s Hospital in Stockton, California after brain surgery two weeks prior. His death was 48 days short of his 86th birthday. He was surround by his family, and grandchildren and spouses as he traded his pilot wings for angel wings. Frank Katcher was born to Austrian emigrant parents Alex and Katie Katcher on February 5, 1922 in Smoke Run, Pennsylvania. He was one of three boys and two girls born to Alex and Katie Katcher. He was preceded in death by brothers John Katcher of Pennsylvania and Stan Katcher of Ohio. He is survived by a brother, Charles Catcher, USN, ret. of San Diego, California, and sisters Ann Rusnak of Pennsylvania and Helen Vejoyivich of Ohio. Other survivors include his wife of 60 years, Evangline (Vangy) Katcher, of Lodi, a daughter Terry Lee Brown, and a son, Daryl Katcher both of Sacramento. Other survivors include numerous nephews and nieces, and grand nephews and nieces. As a young man growing up in Pennsylvania in the 1930?s he tended to chores on the family farm by herding cattle, hunting game and living a Tom Sawyer-like life. Like many men in Pennsylvania, he worked in the coal mines. Recognizing limitations of working below ground in the mines, Frank enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corp. That brought him West to Oregon and Washington where he and others in the CCC built dams and planted trees, which fostered a life long love of forests and mountains. After serving in the CCC, he sought out new adventures and enlisted in the United States Navy as a seaman, becoming a gunnery sailor on different ships from Landing Ship Tanks to battleships. On the battleship Macon, Frank was in charge of the guns in the ship?s Sixth Division, and authoring this division?s account in the Macon?s cruise book. While serving in the Pacific Theatre during World War II, he participated in several battles for control of strategic islands, including Tarawa, Midway and Leyte Gulf. While remaining an enlisted man in the Navy, Frank nevertheless reached the rank of acting Lieutenant during service in the Philippine and Fiji Islands, through the end of the war with Japan. After VJ Day, Frank returned to West Coast U.S., where he was stationed between San Francisco and Lodi, California. On one particular liberty pass, Frank traveled to Lodi, California where he met a relocated North Dakotan, Evangline Mayer, who would become the love of his life and marital partner for over 60 years. They were married in North Dakota in 1947 and lived there for a while while he attended Moeler?s Barber School from which he graduated. While becoming an accomplished barber, his heart was elsewhere. He had an interest in automobile mechanics and pursued that trade as well. But Frank?s real abiding interest was in mining minerals. During the majority of his working life, Frank pursued mining in Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, British Columbia, Canada, but mostly in California. But unlike the coal mines of Pennsylvania where he worked under ground, he now was involved in mill processing minerals, including tungsten, silver, silica sand and through the end of his career, gold and other precious metals. He progressed in his career from running the mills, which refined the minerals from ore, to designing mills in California and the Pacific Northwest, despite no formal training in this field. Frank was largely a self-taught designer. He also was a ?jack of all trades? and master of most of them. He retired in the 1980s after acting as a consultant to various gold mining concerns throughout the West where he was sought out for his experience and ability to find practical and economical solutions to mining and mill processing problems in the gold mining industry. Frank Katcher was not only a valuable and accomplished employee in his mining field, but had many others outside interests. In addition to working in mining, Frank maintained a cattle ranch for over thirty years in Acampo, California, raising Hereford and Angus beef cattle. His many mechanical skills were needed in maintaining ranching equipment from antique tractors to pickup trucks. He designed and built a cattle squeeze chute, improvising changes of other chutes he had seen. But it was not all work for Frank. He maintained a love of hunting that was nurtured as a child in Pennsylvania. Deer season was a special time for Frank, not just for the pursuit of bagging game, but the opportunity to get back to the mountains and tall timber that he loved more than the hunt itself. The camping with his son and walking the Kit Carson Pass in the Sierras was his real physical passion, something he enjoyed into the last year of his life. Late in life, Frank took up landscape painting, after being inspired by television artist, Bob Ross. Frank painted mountain lake scenes like the ones he loved to visit. Frank was a voracious reader and enjoyed a technical challenge in life. In the 1960?s he threw himself into obtaining an amateur radio license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). He obtained the prestigious General Class radio license after passing the exam in San Francisco. He maintained the amateur radio station in Acampo for over twenty years where he communicated with people all over the world in both voice and Morse code. Outside of the love for his wife and family, Frank?s greatest passion was for aviation. His interest was fostered at a relatively early age, where he took flying lessons in Pennsylvania and soloed a Piper Cub and an Aeronca airplane in 1947 after returning from the War. The flying bug smoldered in Frank for many years before flaring up in 1972 when he completed flight training at Lodi Airport receiving his private pilot license that year. Later that year Frank purchased an Aeronca 7AC aircraft, not unlike the one he soloed in 1947, and maintained , restored and flew this airplane for over thirty years. In addition to the Aeronca, Frank also owned and flew a Cessna 172 for over twenty-five years. He passed on his love and passion for aviation to his son, Daryl who became a private pilot two years after Frank was licensed. Together they flew both airplanes from Canada to San Diego. Frank and Evangline (Vangy) flew many places together in both airplanes, including trips to North Dakota and Arizona. If Frank Katcher was fond of hunting and hiking, he was absolutely obsessed with flying, chasing sunsets and clouds in the California skies. Air shows were a joy he and his son shared and they attended uncounted numbers of them throughout the West. As passionate as Frank was for flying, it was only exceeded by his love of family. He was inseparable from his wife Vangy for all of their married life together. His daughter Terry was the apple of his eye and her three children, Brody Day, Brooks Day and Emily Day were, as his grandchildren, the crowning joy of his life. Family gatherings from plays, graduations and marriages were especially joyous and he enjoyed them more than life itself. He leaves behind a brother and two sisters. He also leaves a wife, two children and three grandchildren, including Brody?s Day?s wife Katie, a former son in law Jim Day, and a current son in law Jeff Brown. All will miss him terribly but all will also remember the kindness, the strength of his person and character that he exhibited during his long and fruitful life. Frank Katcher touched the lives of all who knew him not only by words and deeds, but in the admirable way he lived out his life of nearly 86 years. Though he has passed from this world, he will not soon be forgotten, and fittingly, his family is his legacy. A chapel service will be held Thursday December 27, 2007, 1:30 pm at Lodi Funeral Home, followed by interment at Cherokee Memorial Park. Visitation will be held Wednesday 12:00-8:00pm at Lodi Funeral Home.