Born Dec. 20. 1956, he passed away peacefully in the home his mother and father built on March 12, after a long fight with COPD and CHF. He passed comfortably with his daughter at his side.

My father was an amazing person and loyal friend. He was a wonderful father to his daughter, Melissa Newton, and Duncan Espinosa (whom he loved like his own son). One final wish my dad had was to see Duncan again and my brother made sure that happened.

My father was a jack of all trades, there wasn’t anything he couldn’t fix. All his friends would call him whenever they needed a car fixed or a house wired. I remember spending many of my days playing with long time friends, Joe and Tyler Carswell at their house in McKinleyville while my dad helped Ron, their dad, work on cars. (Verla, Ron’s wife, practically raised me. Verla was my second mother.) As well as playing on the sand dunes in Manila at one of my father’s many friends house while he worked on the three wheelers to get them up and running so we could go ride. One of my brothers and mine memories of riding on three-wheelers with my father was a time we were going up an big sand hill and my brother hit the kill switch and shut the three wheeler off and we all rolled down the hill. Needless to say, he learned his lesson that day about the kill switch.

Any of my fathers friends knew that all they had to do was to call him and he would be there in a heart beat to help them any time of day or night. My father would tell me about the many adventures he had when he was younger. His favorite story to tell was the time he took his motor cycle from Nevada to Eureka doing over 100 m.p.h. There was a spot in the road that he hit and jumped his bike and almost lost control.

My father was very blessed to have many special friends in his life, many of them life long friends. Dave Thomas, Rick Plozin and Verla Carswell, and Lance and Val Marcelli just to name a few. I know that there were many, many more and I’m sorry that I don’t remember all the names.

My father is preceded in death by his mother and father, Lindy and Charlotte Pedro, his brother Jack, and his Uncle Dwayne Christianson.

He is survived by his daughter, Melissa Newton (Jason), son, Duncan Espinosa (Melanie), grandson Jonathan Stone (Alexis), granddaughter Madison Howe (Micah), granddaughter Kaylee Rapp (Connor). He is also survived by his other grandchildren, Devin and Lena Espinosa, and his one great-granddaughter Keziah Pearl Howe.

I would like to give a special thanks to Hospice of Humboldt for their help in taking car of my father. Also, a very special thanks to a young lady that stepped up to help, my own loving daughter, Kaylee Rapp, without whom I wouldn’t have been able to make my dads last days possible to stay at home. Also I want to thank Rick Polzin for taking dad out and dealing with his craziness. I know it wasn’t easy at times.

There will be a celebration of life at Freshwater Park on June 24 starting around 12 p.m.

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