Donald Edward Houghtaling

Donald Edward Houghtaling died peacefully at home on May 2, 2020, in his apartment in Redlands, California, with his wife Esther and daughter Heather by his side. He was 69.

Don was born on November 5, 1950, in Hackensack, New Jersey, to parents Richard Herbert Houghtaling and Marion Grace McQuoid. He spent most of his early years growing up in Rochester, New York, and he attended and graduated from John Marshall High School. After high school, he worked for Eastman Kodak in Rochester, after which he enlisted in the Air Force around 1970, during the Viet Nam War. He was stationed at Udorn AFB in Thailand and was a PJ in Pararescue, in the 40thA.R.R.S.  Following that, he was honorably discharged, went on to Hahn AFB in Germany, and was stationed there from approximately 1973-1977 in Aircraft Maintenance, followed by a short time in the USAF Reserves at Williams AFB in Arizona. By the time he was again honorably discharged effective 10/26/79, he had attained the rank of Staff Sergeant (E-4).

            In November 1980, Don married Kathryn Robson, and they settled in San Bernardino County, in the Redlands/San Bernardino area. Don soon got a job as an historical researcher through a government contractor at Combat Camera at Norton AFB. During this time, in 1984, his one daughter Heather Michelle was born. She was the light of his life. There wasn’t anything Don wouldn’t do for his family.

While an historical researcher, he was in charge of searching out archived military footage for shows such as Wings on Discovery, JAG, Air Force Now film series, the music video for Already There by Lonestar, and a POW documentary, and for movies such The Hunt for Red October and We Were Soldiers. He later went on to work at March AFB as well. Altogether he was an historical researcher at Norton and March for over 26 years.

In May 2006, Heather was married to David Worsham, Jr. Don was so proud and happy. Then hard times came around 2009 when he and Kathryn divorced and he was laid off from his job, as new management took over the contracting company and they downsized. After Don was laid off, he came to God and began praying more, going to church, and attending a Christian divorce support group. Soon, much to his joy, his first granddaughter Kaylee Lynn was born on April 16th, and then he met Esther Mellis at a small group Bible study in Redlands in September of that same year. Through Esther’s influence, he drew still closer to God. Don and Esther dated for just over a year. In May 2011, Don took a job with the National Archives and Records Administration as an Archives Specialist in the Presidential Materials Division. Two months later, in July 2011, Esther joined Don back in Washington, D.C., and they married on July 30th.

Between 2011 and 2016, Don and Esther enjoyed visiting museums and parks and other historical sites on the east coast such as Manassas, Gettysburg, and Antietam. Don loved trips like these because he had such a love for history and photography. Also in 2014, much to his added joy, Heather gave birth to Charlotte Rose, his second granddaughter.

Don was first diagnosed with COPD in 2013 when he got pneumonia and was hospitalized for several days. He managed to go back to work and continue working up until September 2016 when he was forced to medically retire due to the severity of his progressing condition. Esther became his primary caregiver. He officially retired on July 31, 2017. He declined a bit further in early 2018 till Esther decided to quit her tutoring work and become his caregiver full time. God was then so gracious in helping Don and Esther to make the move from DC back to California in September 2018, where they could both be near family. Their time in CA was going quite well until Don had a series of hospital stays towards the end of 2019, the last one being a week’s stay at Redlands Community Hospital in December for pneumonia with sepsis, from which he never quite fully recovered. He got to see his family on a weekend in January and again on May 1st. He is survived by his wife Esther, his daughter Heather Worsham and son-in-law David, granddaughters Kaylee and Charlotte, and his nephews Gary Houghtaling and Eric Houghtaling.

We know that many of Donald's friends would like to attend his service on Tuesday and we wish you could, too. But, due to this difficult time in out society right now, it makes it impossible for larger groups to be together. For this reason, we have chosen to have a viewing time after the private service for friends and family to spend some time together over a period of 4 hours. This will enable us all to keep a safe distance. We would love to see you during the visitation time.