Daryl Lee Mahan

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Daryl Lee Mahan, 72, from Cerritos, CA, was welcomed Home with our Lord on June 1, 2019. Daryl was born Oct. 24, 1946, in Wayne, NE the only child of Woodrow and Lenora Mahan. They lived in the Quonset huts at Wayne State campus where "Woody", and Lenora earned their teaching degrees. After this time they lived in the small town of Hoskins, NE until the family moved to Denver when Daryl was 9. Daryl graduated from Arvada HS in 1964 and Sioux Falls (SD) University in 1969. After graduating Daryl joined the Navy but never sailed the seven seas as he served as the first hospital corpsman for the newly formed ARC (Alcoholic Rehab Clinic) at the Naval Station in Long Beach. After being honorably discharged from the Navy in 1973, he began his career in banking, working for First Interstate Bank and Bank of America retiring in 2008 as a Real Estate loan officer. In his spare time, he was an avid golfer and an armchair quarterback watching his beloved Denver Broncos from his favorite chair every Sunday after church.
Daryl met his wife of almost 47 years, Gretta Louise Heyniger Mahan, at SFU and they married in her home state of NJ July 22, 1972. Gretta was already teaching with LBUSD so they continued to live in Long Beach until they bought their present home in Cerritos in 1974. They raised their two boys Jason (1977) and Bryan (1980) there. Besides church activities at Calvary Baptist (now CCNLB) church in Long Beach, Daryl was active with the boys in the Y Guides, ultimately becoming Chief. Summers found the family traveling for 2-3 weeks throughout the US visiting family and every historical place that could be found, stopping at rest stop for picnic lunches made by Gretta, which we all loved. Daryl was thrilled to see the family expand as grandchildren Connor and Logan born in CO and Devlyn, Makellah, and Luca born in CA joined in. During retirement, Daryl spent two days a week with his golfing buddies playing almost every golf course in SoCA. He also spent as much time as possible with the grandchildren going on field trips and stopping at McDonald's for ice cream. He was a masterful bedtime storyteller creating a world of heroic animals led by the comedic Blind Squirrel. For the last five years in October, he and his mom traveled from China to Russia and many places in between. Plus, he and Gretta enjoyed many stateside trips visiting family and friends. One of their favorite trips in retirement was a drive across country where they were able to spend time at their alma mater reminiscing about their college days and when Daryl brought Gretta a bag of seeds as a corsage on their first date.

Daryl is survived by his mom, Lenora (Mim), wife Gretta, and their sons Jason and Bryan and their families. He will be greatly missed by all, as he was known to give more love to others than he expected in return.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Daryl's honor may be made to: The Conservation Fund (https://www.conservationfund.org/), and The First Tee (https://www.thefirstteeorangecounty.org/), or an organization of your choice.

Services will be at Forest Lawn, Cypress, CA on June 25th at 11:30 AM. More information can be found at Tributes (http://tributes.com/)