MELVIN THOMAS MCGUIRE

Melvin Thomas McGuire passed peacefully at 89 to be with his Lord on June 4. A beloved husband and father, he taught his children by example to be good honest people and dependable workers. He will always be remembered for being a loving, humorous, hardworking, brave individual and will be greatly missed. Mel was born August 23, 1927, in Nevada City to Tom and Marie McGuire shortly after they moved to Nevada City from Wyoming. He attended Nevada City Elementary and High Schools and Sierra College. He worked locally with his Father hauling mining equipment, gravel and various commodities. Mel served in the U.S. Coast Guard on the Reliance until discharged in 1945. He attended aircraft school in the Bay Area qualifying him for aircraft prototype work in various states, Puerto Rica and Japan. Upon returning from Japan in 1952, he bought a Harley Davidson. While visiting his parents in Nevada City he joined friends one evening, when a young blonde named Bonnie Wayne had someone ask if he'd give her a ride on his motorcycle. He obliged. After returning to Oakland he wrote her a wonderful love letter and they married three months later at Grace Lutheran Church in Grass Valley. Within months, they moved back to Nevada City, Mel went into trucking and built their first home on Red Dog Road to raise their five children. Mel continued as a professional owner-operator in the trucking business, which took him many places hauling logs, lumber, refrigerated produce, cars, gravel and construction on Alaska's oil pipeline. After 43 years at age 70, he stopped trucking when he saw a portable Woodmizer sawmill and decided to do custom lumber milling with wife Bonnie at their new home on the "Republic," where they lived and worked until Mel retired in 2011. He loved traveling everywhere from Alaska to Mexico in his motor home. Mel is survived by his wife of 65 years, Bonnie, and their children: Margie (Tim) DeMartini, Cheryl Heward, Susan, Mike (Jamie) and Kirk (Deanna) Mc- Guire; his grandchildren: Vicky (DeMartini) (Guy) Greever, Timmy (Areana), Amanda and Brent DeMartini, Bradley, Jen and Katie Heward, Doug, Jesse, Deena, Drew and Mason McGuire and Megan (McGuire) (Austin) Reimer; and great grand-children Elodie and Sage Greever and Lilliana DeMartini. He was preceded in death by his parents, Tom and Marie McGuire, brother and sister Leo McGuire and Florence (McGuire) Pena, brother-in-law Fred Pena, and son-in-law Brad Heward. A celebration of life will be held July 9, 2017, at 2 p.m., 12950 Tranquility Lane, Nevada City.

MELVIN THOMAS MCGUIRE

August 23, 1927 - June 4, 2017