Eckart Sellinger

Eckart had a middle name, ya' know. But somewhere along the way he got ticked off at someone and dropped the name that connected him to them. Surely nobody who really knew Eckart is at all surprised to hear about his middle name.

An only child being raised by two spicy dames, his single mom, Arthel Sellinger, and his single aunt, JoAnne Bigda, maybe his devil-may-care attitude was both nature and nurture. Star-reading hippies can blame it on his astrological sign of Taurus.

Whomever one chooses to blame, a person didn't easily forget Eckart. At just 5' 8" he was going to let anyone have it if he thought they were asking for it. Even before the grey colored his hair, an dear friend dubbed Eckart "The Curmudgeon" and brought him a six pack of Arrogant Bastard Ale as a coronation gift.

Not one to be pigeonholed as cantankerous, Eckart had a strong sense of logic and an incredible smile that often punctuated his impish and sometimes outright naughty sense of humor. If there was a conversational taboo, Eckart was going to find it and push it. In spite of this, he had many close friends that stuck with him throughout his life.

Eckart took Sandra Lee Miller as his bride in 1964. This Catholic school girl held on to Eckart with all her might right up until the day he died. He was baseball, she was ballet. He was beer, she was Manhattan up. He was board games and she was begonias. He was Elvis and the Beatles, she was symphony and opera. Yet they found their stride in travel, going on long trips in Europe and Asia as well as finding big adventures right here in the USA.

After a very short stint at Its-It Ice Cream at Playland on San Francisco's coast, Eckart secured an entry level job at Bank of America downtown. This is where he staked his claim, eventually becoming a senior vice president with a corner office in a skyscraper on California Street. He said he would know it was time to leave the building during and earthquake when he saw the Oakland Bay Bridge falling apart. By the time the bridge really did fall apart in an earthquake, Eckart had been working in Phoenix for a while, setting up a new data center for the bank. His work led Eckart to major cities around the world including Tokyo, Singapore and London. Not too shabby for a kid who graduated Lowell High School and had no college.

Zorina Adell was born to Eckart and Sandra in 1970. He often joked that he traded his ski boat for a daughter and got the short end of the deal. Eckart was a good dad who carefully taught his girl the art of razzing folks. Eckart also taught her the value of honesty and hard work by some rather unorthodox methods that one time included a forgetful judge and astute court clerk. Together father and daughter saw many Giants games at Candlestick Park, Beatlemania in San Francisco, NASCAR at Sears Point and hiked the Marin Headlands. He took no lip-service from the schools she attended, but wholly supported her in Bobby Sox softball as a scorekeeper for her teams' games. Later he kept supporting her in horse showing and even bought a horse trailer, explaining that the family's 1972 Pontiac Grand Safari station wagon had "a 455 that of course could pull a horse trailer, probably even with a horse in it."

Eckart cleaned up nice and could often be seen at classy restaurants treating family and friends to a meal. He had many sneaky ways of making absolutely sure he would pay the bill, so his friends soon learned it wasn't worth the effort to debate it with him. By far, his favorite meal was a classic burger, greasy and messy. American cheese, no bacon. Put a burger like that in his hands, his butt in his Jeep and a parking spot overlooking the San Francisco Bay and that would be his favorite meal. Top it off with slightly salty fries and a strawberry shake and it couldn't get any better.

Besides the sport of teasing friends and family, Eckart loved to play golf. He rarely commented on his own playing, but enjoyed PGA games in-person and on television. His sense of logic and innate intelligence drew him to learn about and enjoy all sports. Sure, he liked the Giants, the 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs. He also rooted for Mike Tyson, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. From Eckart's point of view though, the wins paled in comparison to how the game was played. He loved to analyze the strategy no matter what sport. He also paid close attention to sportsmanship. Eckart could be called a lot of colorful words, but sore loser wasn't one of them.

After retirement, Eckart gravitated to Sons In Retirement having been invited to his first meeting by an old friend. In time he assumed various roles at both the local and state levels. He felt at home with these men and enjoyed the camaraderie of the meetings and events. He appreciated that this organization focused on fun activities and not a bunch of do-gooders or jerks pushing political or religious agenda.

Speaking of politics, Eckart kept his actual voting cards close to his chest. Rationally he could see the benefit that most people or plans could provide... except Donald Trump. At least once, Eckart was known to say, "I hate that SOB."

Eckart loved to drive and took it seriously, at times seriously fast. He earned perfect scores on both the written and driving tests as a teen. If there had been a skills test for midnight automobile parts acquisition, Eckart would have received perfect scores there too. Before he was married, Eckart and his mom used to each take their cars to Half Moon Bay to drag race. Logically he saw the highlights of every vehicle on the road, but his favorite was General Motors, specifically Pontiac. In 2000, Eckart completely jumped ship and bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee on which he put thousands of miles road trippin' the West Coast.

Eckart's granddaughter, Antigone Barker and grandson, Ashtin Barker knew their grandpa played a cutthroat game of Monopoly. He would also patiently sit as they dressed him up in fanciful fabrics and ribbons, seemingly biding his time until he could chase them around the yard on warm summer nights with the garden hose and sprayer.

To sit in a room with Eckart, his mom, his aunt and his daughter was to sit in a room of boisterous opinions and expressive language that could be offensive to a more genteel set. The two older women fiercely loved their boy whom they affectionately called Butch. As Eckart grew older, he readily took over the work of providing for them as they aged and could no longer push him out of the way. Indeed, Eckart was a solid and reliable provider for all members of his family.

Imagine this portly older man, with a light beer in his hand and two Twinkies on the table beside him, next to the remote. A cat is on his lap and purring as Eckart rests in his favorite recliner, watching a game on television having just finished mowing the lawn. This was Eckart in his happy place.

Eckart died rather suddenly from complications due to diabetes and dementia. There was no public funeral service. He was cremated and his immediate family scattered his ashes on Snider Ridge of Clallam County in Washington state, the same place Eckart scattered his mom's ashes.