Peter Henry Wakeham

Peter Henry Wakeham of Fallbrook, California passed away from heart ailments on July 15, 2019. He was 84 years old. The family will have an informal Celebration of Life at his home on Saturday, August 3rd at 3pm. For address and directions please contact Suzanne Wakeham Stone at wakehamrsvp@gmail.com. In lieu of flowers, the family requests any donations to be directed to the American Heart Association.

Pete was born in Hooton on the Wirral Peninsula near Liverpool, in the United Kingdom. He attended Prenton Secondary School for Boys and earned certificates in piano from the Royal Schools of Music. In his early teens he was apprenticed at Cammell Laird & Co in Birkenhead at the shipyards. While there, he studied evenings at Birkenhead Technical College, completing the highly regarded National Certificate of Engineering in 1957.

On a bit of a lark, he was persuaded by his friend Stanley Brassey to emigrate to Canada in 1957 in search of opportunity. Returning in 1958 and looking for his next new adventure, he joined the British Merchant Navy, sailing around South America as a merchant ship’s engineer. Later, he worked as a mechanical engineer at the Shell refinery in Stanlow, Cheshire in England. In 1963, Stan persuaded him to cross the Atlantic again, to settle permanently in the United States, where he earned a Professional Engineer (PE) license.

Pete took a vacation to the UK in 1966 to work as pit crew for Stan’s motorbike racing. During the trip, he ran into his former sweetheart, Eileen Godfrey, at the local dance hall. Within months they were wed, on June 18, 1966. In August 1966, he brought his bride back to San Francisco. After a brief detour to Harvard, Massachusetts, the couple settled in California. Pete worked as a nuclear and mechanical engineer for Bechtel, Fluor, and Ebasco. The family lived in South San Francisco, Encinitas, Upland, and Lake Forest. In 1987, Pete became a naturalized United States citizen. In 2006, Pete and Eileen retired to Fallbrook, California, where Pete enjoyed his love of vegetable gardening.

Pete was an avid sportsman. He enjoyed motorcycles, rifles, darts, bowling, ocean fishing and golf. His finesse with darts earned him some league trophies, and the respect of pub patrons in San Francisco. Pete was a regular in the bowling leagues at Forest Lanes in Lake Forest. When not pursuing one of his sports or nurturing his garden, Pete might be found in the kitchen whipping up dinner, or playing classical piano- Chopin was a particular favorite. Pete’s keen engineering mind had him repairing cars and all things around the house.

Pete is survived by his wife of 53 years, Eileen (Godfrey) Wakeham, his daughter Lorna Roberts and son-in-law Miguel Robles, his daughter Diane Wakeham and son-in-law Kenneth Ricci, and his daughter Suzanne Stone and son-in-law Derek Stone. Carrying his legacy forward are his eight grandchildren Carolyn Bayles, Timothy Roberts, Marie Roberts, Xavier Ricci, Chiara Ricci, Ansel Ricci, Aubrey Stone, and Weston Stone; and his two great-grandchildren Jackson Roberts and Alex Salguero.