Donald McMullen

Oxnard - Don lived a full life since his birth on August 17, 1940, in Oxnard. He left us after his big heart gave out last year on April 15, 2023, at home, near the old St. John's Hospital where he was born.

He grew up in Pt. Hueneme and had many adventures exploring the beach and creek with his younger siblings, Barbara, John, and Mike (deceased), who served as guinea pigs to test out his youthful experiments building rafts, boats, and homemade scuba gear.

After graduation, he served in the Air Force, and had a 30 year career with G.T.E. during which he built and owned many boats and was a commercial fisherman on the weekends. He retired, but his thirst for adventure did not, and, after obtaining his private pilots license, he built an Experimental kit airplane, an RV 6A in his garage, which he later kept at his hangar at Oxnard Airport. He and his wife, Joan, flew the plane across the U.S. from Canada, and on to Fairbanks, Alaska. Other trips included flights to Florida, to reach the Turks and Caicos, with overnights at many Bahama Islands. He and Joan were members of the Airventurers Flying Club, as well as flying together solo or with friends many times to Mexico, the Yucatan, and to Costa Rica, as well a Honduras, Panama, and El Salvador. Several of these trips were to study Spanish while living with a local family. They flew to many national parks in the U.S. as well as Canada, and also EAA fly-ins in Florida and Wisconsin, and to visit relatives in Montana.

He was multi-talented, and could repair anything on a car, as well as mastering all the building trades. Another of his talents was building computers and managing the programs he installed.

The Angel of Death was cheated when Don survived quadruple by-pass surgery after a cardiac arrest in 2012. After this, he became an expert on whole food, plant-based nutrition and continued his daily exercise routine of running on the treadmill alternating daily with bicycle rides of 13 to 17 miles every other day, and longer rides with his Old Men's bike group once a week.

He is survived by his wife of 28 years, Joan, and by his daughter, Shelley McMullen, and former wife, Joy (Thousand Oaks); by his brother, John, wife Michelle, his sister, Barbara ( Dayton, Nevada) by his step-children, Sam Bailey, (Santa Rosa), Matt Bailey (Ojai), and Lily Bailey Rosenbaum ( Santa Barbara) and their spouses, and many cousins. A memorial was held last year.

He was loved by everyone, a good natured, happy person, who will be forever in our hearts. Old pilots "don't die, they fly East". He loved the poem, "High Flight", by John Gillespie Magee, Jr., and he did, indeed, "get to touch the face of God".