Michael R. Petrich

Michael Petrich Obituary

Michael R. Petrich Michael R. (Mickey) Petrich of Long Beach passed away on April 23 at the age of 86. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Millicent; children, Sharon Hipp, Susan, Michael, and John Petrich; brother, Harold E. (Betty) Petrich; seven grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and over thirty nieces and nephews. Born February 8, 1920 in Jerome, AZ, he moved to Long Beach with his family at age 2. He graduated from Poly High in 1936 and attended LB City College, where he played football. He entered the Army Air Corps in 1943 and became a B -26 Martin Marauder pilot, attached to the 9th Air Force, 575th Bomb Squadron, 391st Bomb Group in England. Shot down over France in July 1944 on his 42nd mission, he was held as a German prisoner of war until the U.S. Army liberated the camps in April 1945. As a POW, he was among a group of 168 Allied airmen who were imprisoned in the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp. There he experienced the evils of Nazism first-hand. The story was memorialized in "Shot from the Sky," a 2004 production that aired on the History Channel. He was awarded the European Theater Service medal, Air medal with seven oak leaf clusters, and the POW medal. Mickey rejoined civilian life, married Millicent, the love of his life, in 1947; and started dual careers at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard and as a motion picture projectionist. He retired from LBNS at age 57. He was serving as secretary/treasurer of IATSE Local 521 when he died. He and his wife enjoyed golf and travel, especially with the Divoteers, playing in Scotland, Ire land, Switzerland, Hawaii, and throughout the continental U.S. In 1994, Michael and Millicent journeyed to England and France for D-Day tributes, visiting his airbase in England, Omaha Beach, and Paris. He was a member of Old Ranch Golf Club for 33 years, Our Lady of Refuge Church, Peppermint Ridge, B-26 Marauder Historical Society, and the 391st Bomb Group Association. He actively supported several of these organizations, volunteering his time and donating to their missions. His devotion to duty, country, and family was unswerving. He enjoyed his family and friends and will be dearly missed by all. Donations may be made in his name to the Memorial Medical Foundation Todd Cancer Fund or Peppermint Ridge, 825 Magnolia Ave., Corona, CA 92879. His memorial mass will be celebrated on Saturday, April 29, at 11:00 AM at Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church, 5195 E. Stearns St. at Los Coyotes Diagonal/Clark/Stearns Sts. in Long Beach. A memorial reception will follow. Private inurnment will be held at the VA National Cemetery in Riverside, CA. Please sign the guestbook at Presstelegram.com/obituaries.

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Published by Press-Telegram from Apr. 25 to Apr. 27, 2006.

Memories and Condolences
for Michael Petrich

13 Entries

Thijs Bakermans

March 8, 2021

War hero! Never forget what you did for our freedom!

jacqueline boughton

May 21, 2006

Dearest Aunt Millie and Family,

It was good to see you, you look great as always, a few years back my husband Mike brought me over to your home for a visit to see you uncle micky, john and Uncle Bud.

I just wanted to say thank you, and Uncle Micky for your wonderful spirit of kidness that i felt in your home and with your family, remember John was trying to get his phone hooked up and my husband Mike was trying so hard to help John with the phone, John was so excited, well you and Uncle Micky brought out a treasure, it was old film footage of the family's, I was able to see my dad Raymond and my mother Catherine when they were young and vibrant, and lots of my cousins, aunts and uncles, we were always having fun, my fondest memories growing up was the gatherings, I will always remember the picnics and swimming the beaches and parks, well that old film we watched you will never know how much that meant to me, to see my father looking so hansom and he was wearing a hat, i cried because it was as if he was there right, standing in front of me, it was very real to me, I remember my father used to tell me, be a brave soldier and be strong when I leave this place if you don't where is your faith in Jesus and the life after, I am a brave soldier so my father will be proud of me, So I wanted to say my father loved you and micky and all your precious family, I do too. God Bless you all.

Bernice Santa Maria

May 4, 2006

Dear Millicent and Family,

At this difficult time I pray that the Lord will bless you with courage and strength. Take comfort in knowing that Michael is safe and at peace in the arms of Our Lord.

Bernice Santa Maria

and P.R. Families and Friends

Patti Bolter

May 2, 2006

As an employee of Peppermint Ridge I have met Michael at a few of our events. I was so sorry to learn of his passing (John told me that his father had passed).

May your memories keep him alive in your heart.

God Bless.

Patti Bolter

Administrative Assistant

Peppermint Ridge

Stanley Allen

May 1, 2006

Dear Millie and Family,

My prayers and warm thoughts to all of you. I am so happy to have shared a life time friendship with Mickey, and the memories we have all had together. Love, Stan Allen

Steven Hipp

April 30, 2006

My father just died and now my Grandpa was taken so fast from me. This has been a very difficult time for all of us.

Michael Petrich was far more than a war hero. He was a quiet peaceful loving man who I called Grandpa.

I am 43 years old yet felt like a five year old at the loss of my Grandpa. My hero. I remember up in Utah he tried riding my ATC up some stairs and fell off, which was the only time I had ever worried about my Grandpa. He just never seemed old to me. It makes my son feel better knowing his two Grandpas are in heaven together.

I will really miss him!

Steven Hipp

Larry Taylor

April 28, 2006

Aunt Millie, Sharon, Susan,Michael, John

Having the oppotunity to share my childhood memories with such a gracious man is an honor and privilege that I shall never forget.Uncle Mike, thanks for the memories.

Bernadette Mott

April 28, 2006

Dear Aunt Millicent, My heart and prayers are with you. Raymond's daughter, Bunnie

Harry and Liz Minor

April 28, 2006

Our thoughts and prayers are with you at this sad time

Mary Lynn Hammond-Newman

April 27, 2006

Dear Millie, Sue and Michael

just got the e-mail from my sister Barb and wanted you to have my best thoughts and prayers. Hort died March 1. It is such a transition.I have such fond memories of "Mr Petrich" at the movies and joking around with us at home while Sue and i did our endless play. Would love to hear from you Sue. Love, Mary Lynn Hammond-Newman

Barbara Hammond-Wagner

April 27, 2006

Dearest Millie, Sharon, Susan, Michael and John,

Our thoughts and prayers are with you during this very sad time. We just lost dad Hammond in March - so your loss is very near and dear to our hearts. We have wonderful memories of "Mick" - growing up with your family.

We are praying for you all - The Hammond Family - Julia, Mary Lynn, Nancy, Barbara and Bill

Jeanie Tatreau-San Jose

April 27, 2006

My prayers & Love to Millie and Sharon and all the family of Mike and Paul. May your angels in Heaven watch over you. You were Blessed.

David Hipp

April 27, 2006

To my family,

With the loss of both my Dad and my Grandpa Mike it calls to my mind two of the most important events in life, birth and death. And what a thrilling thing it is to be well born, to have goodly parents and live in a godly home! But it may be even more important to die well. I would like to say something about the importance of death and the life that follows it.

Sometimes we miss one of our best opportunities—to learn to die well—because we think of death as unpleasant. And because we don’t like to think about unpleasant things, we sometimes close our minds and turn away our faces. But death doesn’t cease to exist just because it is ignored

I would like to point out as gently and as kindly as I can that someday this tremendously important experience of our mortal estate will come to its end.

Someone has said that judging by the past there will be very few of us who get out of this world alive. From the very beginning of life, each one of us lives under an irrevocable, unchangeable death sentence, with a guarantee that it will be carried out. The Lord has given us this maximum notice to enable us to adequately prepare for it. And one man indicated this certainty by an inscription on his tombstone saying, “I knew it would happen!”

There is an old Grecian tragedy written around the fall of Athens. A Roman general had captured an Athenian philosopher and had told him that he meant to put him to death. The Athenian didn’t seem very disturbed and so the Roman thought that probably he didn’t understand. And so he said to the Athenian that maybe he didn’t know what it meant to die. The Athenian said that he thought he understood it better than the Roman did. And then he said to the Roman, “Thou dost not know what it means to die, for thou dost not know what it means to live” what a concept! “To die is to begin to live. It is to end all stale and weary work to begin a nobler and a better. It is to leave deceitful knaves for the society of gods and goodness.”

In fact it has been said, that the most important event in life is death. We live to die and then we die to truly live. Death is a kind of graduation day for life. It is our only means of entrance to our eternal lives. And it seems to me to be a very helpful procedure to spend a little time thinking about our own death. That is, what kind of person would you like to be when the last hour of your life arrives?

The last hour is the key hour. That is the hour that judges all of the other hours. No one can tell whether or not his life has been successful until his last hour. As Sophocles said, “We must wait till evening to know how pleasant the day has been.”

Clearly Mike Petrich had a good life, his was a life that has given love and been loved. A life fondly remembered. When we leave this world for the next, we take only one thing…our memories of that life…the joy, the love, the hardship and the knowledge that we made a difference in the lives of others.

Grandpa Mickey was always an example and made a difference in my life growing up I remember when he called a two star General I worked with. Mike asked Gen McCoy if he could see to it that I was able to make it out to Gramps birthday in California…I was on the next plane and was able to celebrate with him and our family. I will always recall the smell of pipe tobacco, leather golf bags, of Mike washing the dishes after a meal and the gentleness he showed to my dear grandmother at all times. He is a hero in so many ways to so many people, he will be missed…he will be remembered!

And so we come back to the place where we began. What a thrilling experience that we may live well, enabling us to die well and then live with God in the celestial kingdom throughout eternity. The apostle Paul said, we die, “and, behold, we live.” (2 Cor. 6:9.)

We may cry… it is a human emotion, an emotion that is displayed in both happiness and sadness. Now is the time for us to cry, sad for the loss and yet happy he was able to break the chains of this earthly life and after a lifetime of good living.

We now remember the memories of a life well lived.

Love to all, especially Millicent my grandmother and Sharon my mother, two of the strongest and caring people that I know.

David

USAF Veteran of Foreign war and Grandson of Mike Petrich