Forrest Milo Hadfield

1940 - 2025

Forrest Milo Hadfield September 24, 1940 - April 8, 2025 Forrest Milo Hadfield was born on September 24, 1940 to Ross Milo "Bus" Hadfield and Marie Anne (Dissel) Hadfield in Seattle and passed away peacefully surrounded by family at his home in Roslyn on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 after a mostly silent battle with dementia.

Forrest grew up in Madison Park and attended Seattle Preparatory School. As a youth, he had a paper route, hitchhiked with friends to downtown Seattle, and helped with the family business. His grandfather Abner "Slim" Hadfield had started Hadfield's Garage in 1917, a service station near the shore of Lake Washington run by several generations. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Science and in the fall of 1964 was drafted into the U.S. Army, honorably serving two years as an artillery surveyor with a tour of duty in Germany. He also drove the Deuce and a Half truck and taught fellow soldiers who were finishing their high school education. After returning to Seattle, he met his wife-to-be Patricia Ann (Reed) Hadfield and her young son Jeffrey. Forrest and Patricia married on May 24, 1969 in the Lake Washington Arboretum. During 1972-73, the young family traveled through Europe in a VW van, camping and traveling across the continent, seeing the sights and living simply on a small budget. In 1974 they moved to Tehran, Iran for two years while Forrest worked as an engineer with Bell Helicopter.

In 1976, Forrest and Patricia purchased an old miners boarding house in Roslyn and Forrest took a job at the transfer station, collecting many items that would furnish their home. Their son Stefan was born that year and in 1981 their daughter Leah was born, both in the "old house." By that time, Forrest was working overseas in Saudi Arabia and in 1982 moved the family to Jakarta, Indonesia for a position with Telemedia, continuing his work in military-government contracts. Forrest worked primarily in creating training materials for various military aircraft, including the F-18, F-22 and C-31. Throughout his life, he had a love of aviation and could nearly identify overhead planes just by the sound of the prop engine.

After a one-year stint in Waco, Texas, the family moved to Norman, Oklahoma in 1988 for his job with McDonnell Douglas, where Forrest worked until the company was purchased by Boeing in 1997. After contract work in St. Louis, Mesa, Arizona, Boulder, Colorado, and Logan, Utah, he moved back to Madison Park and worked at Boeing until his retirement in 2008.

Throughout their marriage, Forrest and Patricia loved to experience the food and traditions of the cultures they had encountered on their global travels. Patricia was the ultimate hostess, putting on parties and entertaining friends and family while Forrest quietly enjoyed the festivities. As an international kind of guy, friends often suspected the quiet and thoughtful man may have been involved in clandestine activity but Forrest never divulged any secrets about his security clearance. After Patricia passed in 2008, Forrest continued to explore the homeland by train, plane and bus to New Orleans, San Francisco where his uncle and cousin lived, and Loreto, Mexico. In 2023, Forrest moved back to Roslyn, where he lived with his son Jeff until his passing.

Forrest was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Patricia, and their grandson Ryan Bury. He is survived by his children Jeff, Stefan (Christina Adamson) and Leah Hadfield (Leah Knight), granddaughter Evelyn Valleroy, great-grandson Ezekial Bury, siblings Russ, Mark, Marty and Roxanne Hadfield, sisters-in-law Cherie Shuvee and Linda Peyton, and many cousins, nieces and nephews. He will be greatly missed and always remembered for his generosity, love for his family and appreciation of nature. The penultimate gentleman, Forrest never asked for a thing and his motto was always "keep it simple" so to honor his wishes no services are planned at this time.