Gary Ivan Pearce

Gary “Duke” Pearce, 78, a longtime resident of Walla Walla, accepted a new job on a ranch in Heaven after a ten+ year bout with cancer.

Duke grew up a cowboy on ranches in Arizona, California, and Idaho.  It was as a very young man when he helped chaperone European royals who had come to the U.S. to ride that he got the nickname “Duke.”

He served four years in the U.S. Navy on a Super Constellation as a member of the early detection radar squadron out of Hawaii.  He clocked just under 4000 flying hours.  While in Hawaii, he learned to sail, loved it, and purchased his own sail boat.  Duke loved anything that would go fast, hot rods, horses, motorcycles.  He was a good mechanic.  He was also a handyman who could fix or do just about anything, from carpentering to electronics.

Over the years, he was a heavy equipment operator, a labor and concrete foreman, and a truck driver out of the Tri-Cities area.  He worked as a trouble-shooter on the massive Rollins Tunneling Company’s digging machines in Germany, Italy, Three Mile Island, and other places as needed.

He will be greatly missed by his friends, his companion Lois, his daughters Tanya Kauwe of Florida; Laura Schuldt of Wasilla, Alaska; and Jill Daher of Bothel, Wa.; by his  grandchildren Anthony, Shantel, Robert, Shayla, Lydia, and Jesse as well as by ten great grandchildren, and three great great grandchildren.  His brothers Dale, Shannon, and Brian Pearce are residents of Nampa and Emmett, Idaho. Monty ranches in Nevada. Parley lives in Walla Walla. His sisters are Dixie Grissom of Taylor, Az;  Bunny Kitt of Cranbrook, B.C.; Beau Burk of Emmett, Idaho; Melodee Anderson of Buhl, Idaho, and Sonya Washburn of Nampa, Idaho.

A Memorial Service will be held at 615 Abbott, Walla Walla, WA. on Tuesday, August 21, 2018 at 5 p.m.

Duke, enjoy your new assignment.  We’ll see you at the race track in Heaven.