~ IN MEMORY ~
USAF veteran, DL Capt. Dwight E. Grandia
May 22, 1942 ~ July 4, 2021
We have received this sad news from family that retired
Delta pilot and Delta Golden Wings member Captain Dwight Eugene Grandia, age
79, has passed. Captain Grandia joined
Delta Air Lines 02-08-1973 and was based ATL/030. Widowed in 2013 with the passing of his wife Jacqueline,
Captain Grandia is survived by his children Tim and Liza, and his granddaughter
Adelaide plus many more dear family members.
To share memories and view family photos online please visit
https://obituaries.oskaloosa.com/obituary/dwight-grandia-1082752292
Condolences may be sent to the family c/o Liza at
9223 Genipa Way, Gulf Shores
AL 36542-8330.
Thank you,
~ Carol for the PCN
Obituary : After a two-year struggle with gall bladder
cancer, Dwight Grandia passed away peacefully at home in Gulf Shores, Alabama,
on July 4, 2021. He was the firstborn to Dutch-American parents, Anna Marie
Cornelissen Grandia and Virgil L. Grandia, on May 22, 1942 in Oskaloosa, Iowa.
Raised on a farm southeast of town, he was the only child in his class taught
with eight other grades in a one-room schoolhouse. He graduated from Oskaloosa
High in 1960.
Attending Iowa State University with a scholarship from Air
Force ROTC, he received his BS degree in Aerospace Engineering. He earned money
in the summers fighting forest fires in the west. He worked briefly for
Boeing's missile and space division in Seattle.
He trained as an F-4 pilot in 1965 and joined a tactical
fighter squadron on Bitburg Air Base in Germany in 1966. There he met his wife,
Jacqueline S. Mixon, on a Christmas trip to Israel in 1967. They became engaged
at "tulip time" in Amsterdam in April 1969 and were married in her
home community of Crossville, Alabama, on July 21, 1969.
Three months later, he was sent to Vietnam by way of Clark
Air Force Base in the Philippines for jungle survival school. From Da Nang Air
Base, he flew 150 combat missions. While in Vietnam, his son Timothy (Tim)
Redden Grandia was born in spring 1970.
He was re-stationed to Hill Air Force Base in September 1970
as a test pilot on the F-4 and RF-4, with one dramatic emergency landing making
the evening news. After he left the Air Force in January 1973, Delta Airlines
hired him the next month and his daughter Elizabeth (Liza) Mara Grandia was
born soon thereafter.
Over a 27-year career as Delta pilot, he flew the DC-8,
B-727, 757, 767, and L-1011. Taking advantage of flight passes, the family
shared many wonderful vacations. He and wife Jackie founded and led the Friends
of the Library association in Stone Mountain, Georgia; served frequently as PTA
officers; coordinated an election bond that built 17 new libraries in Dekalb
County; and contributed to many other volunteer projects. He was deacon and
elder for several Presbyterian Churches (Memorial Drive in Stone Mountain,
Georgia; Decatur, GA; and Gulf Shores, AL), and attempted to found a new church
affectionately known as the "Church of the Loons."
After retirement in 2000, he preferred travel by land,
touring all fifty states and Canadian provinces with his wife Jackie in their
RV. For many years they tended a two-acre vegetable farm on Jackie's homeplace
in northwest Alabama. They moved to Gulf Shores, Alabama, in 2004, where they
volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. Together, they generously supported
Democratic candidates, construction of wells in rural Africa, World Vision,
Habitat for Humanity, and ProPeten in Guatemala, among other charities.
An avid gardener, scuppernong wine vintner, house builder,
and beekeeper for four decades, he gave away buckets of produce and (literally)
a ton of honey to friends and family. A skilled carpenter and handyman, he paid
many favors to his neighbors, who admired his sunny spirit. In later years, he
socialized with the Ancient Aviators and put in countless hours on seven new
Habitat houses and many more renovations in southern Alabama.
The birth of his only grandchild, Adelaide Rose, to his
daughter Liza in 2010 gave him a new identity, "Papa D." After his
wife Jackie succumbed to cancer in 2013, he made many trips to see son Tim in
Brooklyn, NY, and daughter Liza in Woodland, CA. He and granddaughter Adelaide
became fast friends—biking, swimming, camping, reading, game playing, and even
traveling to the Netherlands together in 2017. In later years and throughout
the pandemic, Adelaide and her Papa D talked on the phone or FaceTime nearly
every day.
Optimistic, generous, gregarious, patient, and always
honest, Dwight could strike up a conversation with any stranger. From childhood
farm antics, smoke jumping from helicopters into wildfires, winter survival
training during a blizzard in Donner Pass, test pilot escapades, bee swarms, and
worldwide travels, he had many adventures to tell.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Jacqueline Mixon
Grandia on November 21, 2013. He is mourned by his son Tim Grandia [and husband
Miguel Montelongo]; his beloved granddaughter Adelaide and daughter Liza
Grandia; six younger brothers and sisters [listed with spouses]: Harold [and
Eunice] Grandia, Marjorie [and Ron] VandeWall, Eileen [and Paul] O'Connor,
Freda [and Tom] Perdue, Darlene Grandia, and Roger [and Jill] Grandia. With a
photographic memory for dates, Dwight also kept up with the birthdays and life
events of all his 14 nieces and nephews, as well their children, and onto
great-great nieces and nephews.
His ashes will lay next to his wife's in the Freewill
Baptist cemetery of Crossville, Alabama. Reflecting his green thumb, his chosen
epitaph was "Nearer to God in a garden." In line with Dwight's
wishes, charitable contributions are preferred to flowers. A Go Fund Me
memorial fund ( https://gofund.me/44d2b0bc
) has been established in his name to support agroecology education for
Q'eqchi' Maya youth.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/160015428/jacqueline-sue-grandia
Jacqueline Sue “Jackie” Mixon Grandia
BIRTH : 10
Jun 1941
DEATH : 21 Nov 2013 (aged 72)
BURIAL : Liberty Free Will Baptist Church Cemetery, Crossville,
Lamar County, Alabama
No comments:
Post a Comment