GARY TUTTLE
Gary Tuttle was born Saturday, March 18th, 194,4 at 3:22 am
A Pisces, born in the year of the Wood Monkey. He had a good run living 8 decades, 1 year, 13 days.
Gary was born and raised in Hanford, and (when his son would ask for a ride to school) would jokingly claim he had to walk every day to school regardless of the weather. Of course, the High School was only 3 doors away, as he lived down the block from Hanford High East Campus.
After High School, he went away to Los Angeles to attend UCLA where he met his future wife, Karen, who wanted nothing to do with him. While at UCLA, Gary was drafted and sent to Fort Ord where he spent the 2 years of his term “Protecting the virtue of the ladies of Seaside”, and was never involved in combat.
When his service was over, he returned to UCLA where he completed his bachelors in Mechanical Engineering science, and Karen decided he wasn’t so bad after all. They were married in 1969 and his death marked the end of 55 years, 6 months, & 18 days of marriage.
He spent a lot of time camping, hunting (ducks, geese, doves, pheasants, deer as a youth), and fishing (mostly lakes and streams).
As a youth he’d been into scouting, something his two sons did as well, to varying degrees. Gary had even been a den leader (or assistant) for his younger son’s group.
As a hunter he’d taught a couple of gun safety classes, and was a staunch supporter of waterfowl conservation with groups like California Waterfowl Association & Ducks Unlimited. Even chairing the local Tulare DU Chapter, and helping to organize, promote, & operate several sponsor dinners & youth events in the 80’s, 90’s & 2000’s. He’d celebrate his father’s birthday with the opening of Dove season, then travel to Tule Lake on the California/Oregon border to hunt ducks & geese. In the 2010’s he began traveling to Hanna, Alberta, Canada to open goose season there before returning to hunt in California.
Fishing was predominantly Lake and River fishing with the south fork of the Kings river, Pine Flat Lake, Mammoth Pool reservoir, Silver Lake as his most frequent locations to dip in a line.
It was along the south fork of the Kings River, in California at Cedar Grove in Kings Canyon National Park (originally Sequoia National Forest) where he spent the most time camping and fishing. Even working a couple of summers as a teen at the community store in the late 50’s early 60’s. His father took the family to Cedar Grove starting in the late 40’s, early 50’s, where they would usually camp with the same group of other campers making life long friends, affectionately known as the Roaring River Rejects, which later grew into the Friends of the South Fork Kings River (a conservation minded group focused on the stewardship of the south fork Kings River watershed).
As part of work Gary had traveled around the world a couple of times visiting job sites. But International travel was never his interest, he preferred just hopping in the truck & trailer and traveling North America. Upon retirement, he & Karen set out across the country from California to the Eastern seaboard and up to Maine before returning out west.
Gary worked as a Mechanical Engineer for his career predominantly with Waterman Industries in Exeter, California for 29 years, 10 months, before a financial restructure forced him out, designing water & wastewater control valves for agriculture & waste water. Then 3 years for Golden Harvest in the same field.
Genealogy had been Gary’s hobby since at least the 1970’s, and with retirement, was able to invest quite a bit of time into researching his ancestors and relatives. Regrettably, having never truly learned to use computers, Gary’s foray into online genealogy was with quite a bit of assistance from his wife and older son.
Over all Gary was in good health for most of his life.
He suffered from allergies every spring.
In the late 90’s he had suffered from a stroke, which he mostly recovered from with only slight weakness in his left hand remaining.
He had a couple of kidney stones, one of which never passed and inhibited one of his kidneys.
In 2021 he suffered from a heart attack and had a double bypass.
His health began rapidly declining after Thanksgiving 2024, when he complained about pain and swelling in his lower legs in early December it was discovered he had a couple of blood clots. As stroke scare just after New Years 2025, discovered two more clots in his heart. More clots were discovered and dispensed with at the end of January.
But he was doing well, moving about on his own taking care of himself.
3 weeks ago he had a stroke. Two days later (3/12) he went into the ER where it was discovered he had stage 4 cancer with masses on the pancreas and liver.
He returned home 2 weeks ago for home hospice care, where his wife and both sons took care of him until his passing March 30, 2025. He is survived by his wife, Karen, his older son, Michael, and his younger son, Myron, and his wife, Erin.
To send condolences or sign the family guest book, please CLICK HERE to send. Peers-Lorentzen Funeral Services is in charge of arrangements.