Dean Wilker, 84

A LIFE STORY

Born: Aug. 10, 1920, Grace, Idaho

Died: May 14, 2005, Radford, Va.

Marines left their mark on Dean Wilker, 84 Precision and duty marked the life of the retired colonel and pilot who settled in Irvine after living around the country.

They say there is no such thing as a former Marine. Once a Marine, always a Marine.

That was certainly true of Dean Wilker, a retired colonel and fighter pilot who each year gathered with fellow veterans at the Nieuport 17 restaurant to celebrate the Nov. 10, 1775, formation of the Marine Corps; who had his children answer "Yes, sir" and "No, sir"; and who fought without hesitation in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

His military precision stayed with him throughout his life, from his tidy white tennis outfits to his meticulously manicured garden.

He was 84 when he died May 14 of complications of congestive heart failure while in Virginia for his granddaughter's university graduation.

Dean grew up on a ranch in Grace, Idaho, living the life of a real cowboy. But while he liked to reminisce about those good old days in his later years, as a youth he wanted only one thing: to fly airplanes.

After high school he spent two years at a junior college so he could enter the Navy's flight-training program. In 1942, he entered the Marines.

He was introduced to his wife, Katie, by her brother, who was in Dean's Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323 (nicknamed "Death Rattlers"). Dean and Katie had two days to get acquainted before he was sent overseas in WWII.

When he returned a year later, they dated for two weeks before marrying in Florida in 1945. She was 19 and he was "adorable," she says, and that's all it took.

Dean was devoted to the Marines and never questioned a transfer. As a result, his family, which soon included two children, moved 43 times in 32 years, always within the U.S. Each of their children attended a dozen different schools.

Katie, who had spent the first 19 years of her life in the same house, said that every time she hung a pair of curtains, she knew she'd be taking them down again before they even got soiled.

On the plus side, each move was an adventure and a lesson for the children on a new region of the U.S. Dean liked showing off his country. He was fiercely patriotic.

They were stationed at El Toro five or six times and Dean was commanding officer at the helicopter station in Santa Ana from 1971 to 1972. So when he retired in 1974, they decided to make Orange County their home and bought a house in University Park in Irvine.

Always the leader, he also became the University Park Association manager.

Dean was generally a quiet man, far from the stereotypical portrayal of a Marine officer as shouting, overbearing and fearsome.

Tall, fit and handsome, he was a dog lover, a plant lover and a reader, always studying something. He worked in his garden, tending flowers and vegetables with a mixture of tenderness and, well, military precision. There were no stray weeds, you can be sure, and crabgrass dared not venture into his lawn.

In retirement he became an outstanding tennis player (he was very competitive) and played several times a week until a year or so ago. He and Katie played in a league and competed in tournaments around Southern California.

Katie, now 80, still plays five day a week.

Survivors: Wife, Katie; son, Robert; daughter, Kerry Warren; sister, Elthura; brother, Max; grandchildren, Chris, Jamie and Lindsay Warren

Services: 2:30 p.m. June 24, Pacific View Memorial Park, Newport Beach

Donations: Ronald McDonald House Charities Development Office, 1 Kroc Drive, Oak Brook, IL 60523

Orange County Register, The (Santa Ana, CA) - Saturday, June 4, 2005

(714) 796-6082 or rhinch@ocregister.com

Dean Wilker (1920)