DOUGLAS HABERSETZER

Douglas Habersetzer, 68, died Aug. 21, 2010, from lung cancer at his home in Wasilla.

Doug was born in Bremerton, Wash., July 17, 1942, to Ted and Viola Habersetzer. He grew up in Vancouver, Wash., and graduated from Fort Vancouver High School in 1960. His education was supplemented by a real-world street sense earned from becoming self-sufficient at an early age.

Doug was not constrained by limits, his family said. “To him, the world was action and possibility. He lived with such passion, purpose and resolve that in his wake, a giant vacuum has been created.”

At age 10, he sold newspapers on a street corner and hunted deer with his father. He learned about business and people while working in a grocery store, and later at his father’s TV repair shop.

After high school, Doug married Judy Webb and moved to Battle Ground, Wash., where he began a career in real estate. Local dentist Dale Walker took Doug for a ride in his airplane and upon landing from the flight, Doug later said he knew he “either had to rob a bank or figure out how to make enough money so that he would never have to come out of the sky,” his family wrote.

He bought his first airplane, a Taylor Craft, at 23. Throughout the 1970s Doug, Judy and their two sons enjoyed many hunting and fishing trips throughout Alaska, Canada and Mexico. Doug divorced in 1976 and married Donna Redinger in 1981. In 1989, they moved to Wasilla and spent many happy years together boating, flying and living alongside Lake Lucille.

Doug is survived by his wife, Donna; his son, Jim of Talkeetna; his son, Brian of Vancouver; his stepsons, Troy and Nick Redinger of Vancouver; his brother, Ron of Yacolt, Wash.; his dear friend, Peggy Sue Stratton of Florida; seven grandchildren; five nieces and nephews; four daughter-in-laws, Tracy, Laurie, Jessica and Amber; and his yellow Lab, Buddy.

A private service was held in Wasilla.

Arrangements were with Valley Funeral Home and Crematory in Wasilla.