July 13, 1939 – July 3, 2020

Gary Melvin Mathers was born on July 13, 1939 in South Gate, California to George and Janice Mathers.

He delivered newspapers after school while attending Stanford Avenue Elementary School.  He graduated from Downey Senior High School in 1957 and worked after school and summers during all of high school.  He used to like to say "When the other kids were at the beach, I was workin'…"  Late in life he said he was grateful for his energy and good luck in finding ways to make spending money.

After a short stint at junior college, Gary joined the U.S. Air Force.  He served his whole four- year enlistment in Denver, Colorado.  He had an extra part time job then too.  He then got a job at North American Aviation and started junior college at night.  He graduated from Long Beach State College with a BSEE in 1967 and was hired by Hewlett Packard.  Seven years later he resigned from HP to follow his dream of designing and building homes.  His company was called Idyllwild Mountain Homes.  Eight years later he closed his business and took a civilian job as an EE engineer with the U.S. Navy.  He fully retired in 2004.

Five years after retirement, Gary and his surviving wife Faye Ann sold their homes in Crestline and Norco and moved to Rancho Bernardo.  Gary enjoyed golf from age 9, and had a hobby of building Hot Rods for 11 years.  He also enjoyed ocean cruising and RVing with Faye.

Gary was introduced to church as a youth but began regularly attending church after his marriage to Faye.  Late in life he would often remind his wife how lucky he had been in life to have her, his Faith, to have enjoyed each of his jobs and to have been fortunate enough to be able to retire. Faye says, " He always felt so blessed!"

Gary is survived by his wife Faye, his sister Ruth, his children Scott, Steve and Kristine and his grandchildren Lucas, Sadie, Ryder, Nicholas, Dylan, Kailey and Jakob, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Viewing will be held Monday, July 20, 2020, from 2 -5 pm at Poway-Bernardo Mortuary, 13243 Poway Rd., Poway, CA.  A committal service with military honors will be held privately for the family at Miramar National Cemetery where he will be laid to rest.