Don Beach, 78

Don Beach of Poulsbo died July 2, 2007. He was 78.

Beach was born to Stanley Carson Beach and Florence Viva Van Liew Beach in Eatonville in 1928.

He married Elva Marie Kalgaard in September 1953 and Mary Carolyn Welch Millican in July 1989.

Beach worked in the family business, as a volunteer firefighter for the Bainbridge Island Fire Department for 22 years and was hired as fire chief in 1971. He retired from the position in 1986.

Beach served in the U.S. Navy in 1953 at the Naval Air Station in Dallas, Texas.

He enjoyed friends, motor-homing, hunting, crab fishing, traveling and flying float planes. He was a member of Bethany Lutheran Church, the Bainbridge Island Sportsman Club, the Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce and the North Kitsap Good Sam Club.

Beach is survived by his wife Carolyn; daughters Cathy (Jim) Bellefeuille, Diane (Gary) Reese and Janet (Scott) Surber; step-children Lynn (Rex) Nickerson, Jim (Marcia) Millican and Judy (Grant) Mirick; brothers Kenneth C. (Muriel) Beach and David (Marilyn) Beach; sisters Verna (Ed) McGifford and Carol McIntyre; and 13 grandchildren.

Beach was preceded in death by his wife Elva Marie Kalgaard.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. on July 14 at the Bainbridge Island Fire Department, 8895 Madison Avenue.

Memorial gifts may be sent to Bethany Lutheran Church, Bainbridge Island Fire Department, the Puget Sound Blood Bank or Harrison Hospital in lieu of flowers.