Calvin Vance

1923 - 2016

Calvin Vance

It is with sadness we announce that Calvin H. Vance passed away on August 5, 2016. He was born in Burlington, Vermont on April 23, 1923. The third of five children, Calvin grew up helping out on the family dairy farm including delivering milk to St. Johnsbury, VT residences once he was old enough to drive. At 23 years of age he joined the Army Air Force where he eventually became an aircraft mechanic instructor and achieved the rank of Corporal. With an honorable discharge he found his way to California in 1949 where he went to Northrop University to get his bachelors in Aeronatical Engineering and worked at Northrop until he retired in 1990.

In the fall of 1966 a co-worker and his wife set Calvin up on a blind date with a Swedish girl, Ann-Marie Tubbin, whom he married a year later in Sweden on December 30, 1967. Ann-Marie packed up her world and joined Calvin in Gardena, CA and a few years later they moved to Lomita where he lived the rest of his days. This year would have marked 49 years of their marriage together.

Calvin was known as a kind man with a great sense of humor who looked years younger than he actually was. He loved to talk about his life on the farm and how the military was a vacation by comparison since he got a day off a week, unlike farming. Along with his wife Ann-Marie, they enjoyed traveling the world, tending an extensive vegetable garden, reading, the sunshine and lack of snow shoveling of southern California, and getting time with their grandchildren. And chocolate ice cream.

Calvin is survived by his wife Ann-Marie, his son Joachim Vance and his two children Amelia and Josiah of Arroyo Grande, CA; as well as his daughter Victoria Harkins, her husband Barrett and their two children Quinn and Riley of Uppsala, Sweden. He is also survived by his youngest brother Glendon Vance of Salisbury, Maryland and nieces and nephews and their families.

Memorial services will be held on Friday, August 26, 2016 at 11am with a reception to follow at Rolling Hills Covenant Church in the North Chapel, 2221 Palos Verdes Dr. North, Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274. In lieu of flowers, please feel free to make donations to The Salvation Army / Sage House. 138 S. Bandini Street, San Pedro, CA 90731. Sign guestbook at dailybreeze.com