DANIEL WILLIAM COLBURN

1922 - 2022

Daniel William Colburn

Daniel William Colburn, CAPT, USNR (Ret) died on Sunday, June 26, at the age of 99, at home at the Canterbury, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. He was a proud member of the "Greatest Generation," a veteran of World War II, who devoted his life to his family and to aviation. Dan and his wife, Marlowe, were married for 64 years before her death in 2008 and had lived in RPV since 1965.
Dan was born on Oct. 18, 1922, in Minneapolis, Minn., the third of five children of Daniel N. Colburn, DDS, and Ruby Henderson Colburn, who died in 1930. He was predeceased by sisters Priscilla, Nancy, and Sally, all of California, and brother Jim, of Utah. His brother Ted (Elizabeth), son of Amelia Benda Colburn, of Minneapolis, survives him.

Dan graduated from Minneapolis's West High School and entered the Navy's V-5 pilot training program at the age of 19 in 1942. Eventually training at Pensacola, Fl, where he flew the Martin Mariner PBY and where he was commissioned and received his wings in January 1944. 12 days before he was to depart for the Pacific, Dan and Marlowe were married in Minneapolis, and Marlowe joined him for a few days in Calif. He earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses and three Air Medals flying missions in support of the invasions of Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Dan's ship was among the fleet in Tokyo Bay to witness the signing of the surrender of Japan in 1945.

After the war, Dan flew for Honeywell, then for Braniff Airways, and he held corporate aircraft positions and also flew for the FAA before moving to California to fly as a test and training pilot for Douglas Aircraft, which brought Dan and Marlowe around the world. At home, Dan spent thousands of volunteer hours restoring and flying a surviving Douglas DC-2, continued as a HAM operator as a member of the Palos Verdes Radio Club; spent years as the head of his Neighborhood Watch; and, after Marlowe's death, he completed her 30 years as a volunteer at Torrance Memorial Hospital. He retired from the Navy Reserve in 1967 and ended his flying career at Scenic Airlines in 1991.

Dan is survived by his daughter Julie Ann Saemisch, her husband Mike, daughters Julia (Samir Bhavnani) and Amelia (Isaac Johnson), and grandchildren Nina Maas and Wyatt Johnson, and by his son Dan and his husband Joseph Tatnall.

No service is planned.