Daniel Freitas
On June 21, 2022 Daniel David Freitas died unexpectedly but peacefully of natural causes at his home in Eureka. Dan’s son David was home on a visit.
Dan was born in Oakland, CA on August 30, 1923 at the family home. Dan’s parents, Manuel and Virginia Freitas, were immigrants from the Madeira Islands off the coast of Portugal. He was the second youngest of the eight children in the family. Dan was baptized at St. Louis Bertrand’s Catholic parish, which was walking distance from the family home. Dan was a proud “Oakland boy” and equally proud of his Portuguese heritage. The family was poor financially but was very rich in the family bonds and support among the siblings, the parents, uncles, aunts and cousins.
Dan’s siblings, all of whom have died, were Joe, Louis, Abel, Mary Root, Hilda Jardine, Albert and Fred.
Dan attended Stonehurst and E. Morris Cox grammar schools and Castlemont High School in Oakland. During grammar school Dan played baseball and other team sports. When he was 13, his childhood friend, Mark Fry took Dan to the Sequoyah Country Club in the Oakland hills and taught Dan how to caddie and play golf. Throughout high school, Dan enjoyed learning golf and was a regular caddie at Sequoyah. He did not have a car; he hitched hiked to the golf course.
These were the “depression years” and Dan often caddied carrying two bags for two golfers earning 40 cents per bag and usually getting a 10-cent tip for each bag. One of the highlights of Dan’s time as a caddie was caddying for professional golfers in the PGA Oakland Open held at Sequoyah in 1939 through 1941. One year Dan caddied for a golfer in the same foursome with Byron Nelson.
In 1939 the World’s Fair was held on Treasure Island. There was a soap box derby race held for local youth at the fair. Dan and his older brothers, Abel and Albert built a derby race car and entered the races. Dan was the driver as he was the lightest weight of the boys. The brothers won two races before losing. The brothers borrowed the tires for the derby car from a neighbor, so when they lost the third race, the derby car was permanently grounded.
Dan was a good student at Castlemont HS; he enjoyed math classes. He graduated from Castlemont in June 1942 and enrolled in Merritt Business College.
On December 7, 1941 the US entered World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In December 1942, Dan left Merritt Business College and enlisted in the Army Air Corp. After 18 months of training at various Army bases in the US on how to fly a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, Dan was sent in October 1944 to the 8th Army Air Corp base in Deenethorpe England. Dan was in the “Mighty 8th Air Force”, assigned to the 401st Bombardment Group, of the 615 Bombardment Squadron. He flew 28 combat missions as the radio operator of a B-17 over Germany before the war ended. Most of Dan’s missions were with the same pilot and crew members in a B-17 nicknamed “Tagalong”. Dan was discharged in October 1945.
Back in Oakland, Dan enrolled at UC Berkeley. At UC Berkeley Dan joined the Catholic Newman Club. He also joined a progressive Catholic service group called the Young Christian Workers (YCA), which opposed the spread of communism. In January 1946 at a YCA meeting Dan met the love of his life, Frances Merle Jones. Ironically, Frances also attended Castlemont graduating in 1941 but Dan never met Frances in high school.
Dan and Frances dated for four years and fell deeply in love. They wanted to get married but Frances’ parents were reluctant to approve. So in January 1950, they discussed their plan to elope with Father Monahan, the spiritual advisor of the YCA. Father Monahan approved of their plan to elope. On January 28, 1950, Father Monahan said a nuptial mass for Dan and Frances at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in San Francisco. There were only four friends at their wedding. Dan and Francis stayed at the Fairmont Hotel on their wedding night. Fifty years later, on their anniversary, they again stayed at the Fairmont in the same room.
After the wedding Dan and Frances lived for a couple of years in Oakland. In 1953, Dan and Frances moved to San Leandro and by 1963, they had four children, David, Christopher, Mark and Monica. Dan enrolled his school age children in St. Felicitas grammar school, a new Catholic parish.
Dan and Frances enjoyed taking the kids on summer camping trips that included ample time for reading for Frances, fishing for Dan and swimming for the kids. In 1962 on a camping trip on the Merced River, Dan caught a 26-inch German Brown trout. The fish was the largest German Brown trout caught on the Merced in three years.
In 1961 Dan started working for the Department of Motor Vehicles in Hayward. He quickly got promoted to a manager position at DMV. One of Dan’s responsibilities as a new manager was to travel to other DMV offices for trainings and to fill-in as temporary manager during vacations of other managers. One time Dan was sent to the Eureka and Garberville offices as a temporary manager. Dan thought Eureka would be a wonderful place to raise his family. Following this temporary work assignment in Eureka, Dan persuaded Frances that they should move the family to Eureka.
In 1965, Dan and Frances moved to Eureka. They joined Sacred Heart parish and enrolled their children at Sacred Heart grammar school and St. Bernard’s High School. They bought and remodeled a home in the Myrtletown area that has a wonderful view of the Freshwater Slough. Frances started a long career as a laboratory technologist at St. Joseph Hospital.
Dan was the Assistant Manager of the Eureka DMV office and was later promoted to Manager. He continued to work in the Eureka DMV office for over 20 years. Dan gave driver’s license tests to hundreds of Humboldt County residents. Indeed, there is a whole generation of Eurekans that know Dan as “Mr. DMV”.
While living in Eureka, Dan was a member of the Sacred Heart parish council and a member of its Knights of Columbus group. Until the Covid pandemic, Dan rarely missed Sunday mass at Sacred Heart.
Dan was an avid fisherman and spent many evenings fly fishing for trout and steelhead on the Eel and Mad rivers. He taught his children and grandchildren how to fish. He also was an avid golfer. He played lots of rounds of golf at the Eureka “Muni” and at Baywood Country Club. Dan was a member of Baywood until his death.
After retirement, Dan’s enjoyment of golf motivated him to be a volunteer golf coach for the St. Bernard’s golf teams. Dan marshaled many high school and junior high golf matches. As a coach, Dan’s goal was to get young people to understand the fundamentals of a golf swing and the rules of golf. He wanted kids to play golf but was not overly concerned about their scores.
Dan was also a very patriotic veteran, although he didn’t talk much about his WW II service. What Dan did was to join the Collings Foundation, a non-profit group that restored vintage WWII planes such as the B-25, B-24 and the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber that Dan flew in. From 1992 to 2019, Dan was the Eureka organizer of the Collings Foundation “Wings of Freedom” fly-ins to the Arcata airport. Dan and his friends in the North Coast Aviation Society provided information and tours of these WWII planes.
Dan was also a member of the Eureka Elks and enjoyed many meals with his fellow members at the Elks Club.
Dan’s beloved wife Frances died on September 28, 2008. Dan was heart-broken to lose Frances. He tried to ease his sadness though prayer and involvement in his volunteer coaching and fishing and all the cultural activities offered in Eureka. We thank all of Dan’s friends who spent time with him, especially Alise Gaile Furse, Rosemary Murphy, Claire Camozzi, Betty Chinn, Marc Matteoli, the St. Bernard’s golf teams, Greg Bean and Eleanor at Baywood, his lunch buddies and staff at the Cutten Chalet Restaurant and many other friends too numerous to name, who made the last decade of his life meaningful to Dan.
Dan also lost his wonderful daughter-in-law Jane Sanchez, wife of Christopher in 2021.
Dan is survived by his four children: David Freitas, Christopher Freitas, Mark Freitas and wife Susan Gallardo and Monica White and husband Jeff White. Dan is a devoted grandfather to Adam Freitas, Alyson Freitas, Andrew Freitas, Elyse Freitas, Nina Freitas, Diane White, Daniel White and Amber White. Dan is also survived by many loving nieces and nephews too numerous to name.
The family wants to thank Dr. Beth Abels and the wonderful staff at the St. Joseph Medical Health Group for the excellent care given to Dan over many years. Also a special thanks to loyal neighbors the Alora family, especially Pat and Greg Alora for helping Dan and to caregivers Leah Rose and Stephen Vandiau for assisting Dan to live at home.
The funeral Mass of Resurrection and burial for Dan is scheduled for SATURDAY, August 6 at Sacred Heart Church in Eureka. There will be also reception after the burial on August 6.
In lieu of Flowers, we suggest donations to Sacred Heart Catholic Parish or to St. Bernard’s Academy / High School. See below.
All are invited to attend the rosary, the mass, the burial and the reception/celebration of Dan’s Life. Please pass this information on to any of Dan’s friends that you know.
Here are the details:
FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 2022
6:00pm – Rosary at Sanders Funeral Home, 1835 E. Street, Eureka, CA 95501
SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2022
11:30am – Mass of Resurrection -Sacred Heart Catholic Parish, 2085 Myrtle Avenue, Eureka, CA 95501
There is plenty of parking at the church
Immediately after Mass- Burial of Dan at Ocean View / St. Bernard’s Cemetery, 3975 Broadway Street, Eureka, CA
95503.
Approx. 1:00pm to 4:00pm –
Reception to Celebrate Dan’s Life
Sacred Heart Parish Hall
2085 Myrtle Avenue
Eureka, CA 95501
Donations
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
2085 Myrtle Avenue, Eureka CA 95501
Tel: 1-707-442-6151
Web: https://www.sacredhearteureka.net/
St. Bernard Academy Scholarship Fund
222 Dollison Street, Eureka CA 95501
Published by Times-Standard on Jul. 29, 2022.
Credit: Source link
