James Ryer Veeder

James Ryer VEEDER Our beloved husband and father, passed away peacefully at his home at the Hearthstone June 7th.  He was born in Watertown, South Dakota on Nov. 30, 1920 to Lon and Clara Veeder.  When Jim was 12 years old, his family, driven by dust bowl conditions, grasshoppers and little employment, sold their belongings and his mother's turkeys. With only $25, Lon put the family, which now included Jim's three younger sisters, in a boxcar on a freight train to go west. They settled on Union Hill in Redmond establishing a raspberry farm.  Jim spent his early years splitting cedar into fence posts and rails to buy his father his first car. After high school, Jim graduated from Anderson Aircraft College, CA.  He was hired by Boeing as a mechanic.  He later became a flight test engineer on the second B29, flying with test pilot, Bob Robbins. He married his high school sweetheart Vera Bertotti in 1942. Together they worked hard raising a family of one daughter and four sons.  While working at his job at Boeing, Jim also owned his own asphalt company and spent his evenings and weekends laying down asphalt driveways.  If that wasn't enough, he and Vera also owned and operated a motel at the same time. Jim worked as a supervisor on experimental flight test airplanes at Boeing for some thirty years, before retiring early because of illness.  At Boeing he was known as Diamond Jim because he wore a tiny diamond in his ear long before they became fashionable.  Jim couldn't wear a wedding ring because he had chopped off his finger tips in a shop accident.  His Swiss-Italian wife ensured everyone knew he was taken by branding him with the diamond. The family lived across from Greenlake for years before Jim and Vera moved to Conconully, WA to enjoy their "golden years".  Days and evenings were filled with fishing, chopping wood, building garages and enjoying visits with their children. Jim was preceded in death by his parents, Lon and Clara, and his sisters, Evelyn Weiss and Babe Nelson.  He is survived by his loving wife, Vera, cherished children, Lonnie Wright (children Teri Prive and Tina Raghu), James Veeder (children Tony, Jennifer, Angela, Adam Veeder, Paola and Thaddeus Zehetner), Kurt Veeder (children Victoria Carroll), Matt Veeder (children Tiffany Veeder), great-grandchildren (Devin and Dillon Prive, Raghavendra and Anand Raghu), and sister Vicky Moriarty. I miss you sweetheart! We miss you dad!! Thanks for teaching us the value of hard work and pride in a job well-done!!! Services will be at 10:45 a.m., Sunday, June 11th at Cedar Lawns Cemetery in Redmond, Wash.  Gathering at Lonnie Wright's following the ceremony.