David Franklin Holmes

David Franklin Holmes, 92, of Wasilla, Alaska, formerly of Crystal Falls, Michigan, died peacefully after a brief cardiac episode at Mat-Su Regional Hospital in Palmer, Alaska, on July 18, 2018, under the ever-watchful care of his daughter Lynn and her husband Kelly.

Dave was born April 24, 1926, at the Goodwill Farm orphanage in Houghton, Michigan. As an infant he was adopted by Thomas and Florence Holmes of Alpha, Michigan, and joined three older siblings, brother Mervin and sisters Francis and Anna Lucille at the family home in the Stager Lake area. Following a 1944 high school graduation and after being rejected for military service due to being born without one eardrum he began an apprenticeship at a Chicago engineering firm. (In the 1960s his missing eardrum was reconstructed successfully using his vascular tissue.) Dave’s time in Chicago was cut short when he returned to Alpha to care for his mother. After his mother died he followed his father into the exploratory drilling business.

In his drilling career he began doing entry level grunt work at mining job sites, progressed to designing equipment, including helping to design one of the first hydraulic exploration drills, and eventually managed drilling operations for iron ore, copper and shale oil exploration, pipeline support construction, hydroelectric dam reinforcement and vehicle tunnel location. His self-described itchy feet led him to manage international projects in Venezuela, Indonesia, and domestic ones in Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Missouri, Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia. Some memorable occasions included being jolted almost out of his seat while driving a jeep in a Venezuelan jungle and looking back to see that he had run over an anaconda snake laying across the road. At an Indonesia campsite he wondered what besides mosquito netting would protect him from the big cats he could hear in the jungle. Minnesota was memorable for Iron Range open pit mining with hydraulic (water-based) drilling in sub-zero temperatures.While working in Iron County Michigan Dave met Anita (Peltonen) Petersen, a widow with two young sons, Robert and William. Dave married Anita in 1956 and adopted Bob and Bill. Dave and Anita had children Brian and Lynn. Most of their children’s early years were spent in Crystal Falls, Michigan, where they were very active in the community, including First Lutheran Church (later United Lutheran Church), Parent Teacher Association, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Dave was a lifetime Mason, including being a 32nd degree member of the Scottish Rite, and a Shriner. Following Dave’s retirement, they settled in Knoxville, Tennessee, bought a motorhome and traveled North and Central America to visit family and friends and volunteer for Mission Builders, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) ministry that builds and remodels churches. Dave and Anita’s Mission Builder projects ranged from Mexico, Nova Scotia, Saint John, US Virgin Islands and California to Alaska. (For the Saint John project, they parked the motorhome in Florida and flew to the island.) In the late 1990s, they returned to Michigan to care for Anita’s mother. During that time, they returned to multiple lay positions at United Lutheran Church and roles at the Amasa Historical Society. Anita and Dave were recognized as Citizens of Year by the Crystal Falls Lions Club. In their later years in Crystal Falls Dave and Anita were grateful for the help of Anita’s niece Helen Hord, nephews Warren Maki and Dickie Maki, Warren’s wife Teena Maki and their families. In 2010 Dave and Anita moved to Alaska to allow for the support of their daughter Lynn, son-in-law Kelly and other Alaska family. Throughout all of their travels they was active in the Lutheran church where they made many friends and were sustained by their faith. Anita died in 2015, shortly before their 59thwedding anniversary. Dave is survived by his sons Robert Holmes and his wife Sharon Carmody-Holmes (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), William Holmes and his wife Lynn Holmes (Washington, Missouri), Brian Holmes (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) and his daughter Lynn Haralson and her husband Kelly Haralson (Palmer, Alaska). He is also survived by grandchildren Suellen Carmody-Menzer (husband Jeff Menzer), Craig Carmody (wife Brenda Carmody), Matthew Holmes (wife Amanda Stevenson-Holmes), Heather Hughes (husband Jacob Hughes), Amber Craig (husband Ben Craig), Andrew Holmes and Shantel Hoversten (husband Darrin Hovertsen), and his great-grandchildren Olivia Menzer, Carson Menzer, Avery Craig, Lincoln Craig, Allen Hovertsen, Asher Hughes, twins Ayla and Ida Hovertsen and numerous nieces and nephews. Dave was preceded in death by his wife, parents and siblings. An Alaskan memorial service will be held on August 8, 2018, 1:30pm at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 501 Bogard Rd., Wasilla, AK. The family will greet well-wishers before the service. A funeral service and burial are planned for October, 2018, in Crystal Falls, Michigan. The family suggests in lieu of flowers that memorial donations be made to Boy Scout Troop 300 in Wasilla, Alaska, or Boy Scout Troop 508 in Crystal Falls, Michigan.