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May 14, 1923 - April 8, 2016 Beloved husband and father, Howard Henry Kaiser, affectionately known as Punkin, passed away peacefully on April 8. Howard was born in Chicago, the oldest of five children, to parents Henry Kaiser and Ruth Schmeedeberg. The onset of the Great Depression brought difficult times, and Howard's dad moved his growing young family to his parents' farm in Michigan with the thought, "We won't starve." The Depression wore on and by the middle 1930s Henry, not much of a farmer, decided to move his family to the Tampa area of Florida with the more refined mantra, "We might starve, but we won't freeze." Howard graduated Hillsborough High School in 1941 and began Georgia Tech in the fall. The attack on Pearl Harbor changed all thoughts of higher education, and Howard enlisted in the Army Air Corps despite an appointment to Annapolis. He completed flight school at Myrtle Beach in the fall of 1942 and shipped over to England, as an original member of the 455th Bomb Squadron where he flew more than 60 missions, including D-Day, over France and Germany, in the Martin Marauder B-26. On one mission, early in the war, their plane took heavy flak over France, and the crew opted to try to get as close to England as possible. They ultimately bailed into the English Channel where they were picked up by the Allies. The war ended, though Howard remained in the reserves, working briefly as a Beverly Hills police officer and a buyer for Bullocks. He was recalled during the Korean War, finished his undergraduate degree in engineering at Texas Tech and served more than 28 years in the Air Force before retiring. He went to work in the Satellite Division of System Development Corporation in Sunnyvale, California, first as a branch manager, and ultimately as a site manager in both Colorado Springs and Sunnyvale. Howard married Elyse George in 1980 and with the birth of their son Marc Howard and Howard's retirement in 1986, they moved to Westlake Village. Life was wonderful, and a different kind of "retirement" with a newborn! Howard enjoyed life as a stay-at-home dad and watched his young son grow. He never missed a football practice for his son "Boomer" who was a member of the first four-year graduating class of Oaks Christian High School in 2004. He enjoyed golf and lots of travel with the family, including his older son Keith, born in 1956. Howard's cherished son Keith preceded him in death, as well as his four younger siblings. He is survived by his wife Elyse, son Marc (Christy), sisters-in-law Gloria Kaiser and Carol George Stewart (Roger), daughter-in-law Jeannine Kaiser, and loving caregivers Jun and Anton. The final curtain draws ever closer to the end of the "Greatest Generation," your generation Punkin. We love you. A memorial service will be held at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 3415 Erbes Rd., Thousand Oaks, on Saturday, May 14, at 11:00 a.m. with reception following. In lieu of flowers a donation may be made in memory of Howard to the Gary Sinise Foundation, honoring our military and their families at GARYSINISEFOUNDATION.ORG
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Published in the Los Angeles Times from May 12 to May 13, 2016
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