Martin "Marty" Chester Day

Marty was the youngest child of three, born April 3rd, 1936 in Coulter Iowa, in the middle of the Great Depression. His father, Lee Kenneth (who went by “LK”) worked on the Railroad as part of a Section Gang, replacing track, and was often gone for long periods of time throughout the year, sending money home to them. His mother, Elsie, did the best she could raising young children in those very hard times, but there was little to spare for the family of five. Just after the devastation of Pearl Harbor in 1941, they were invited by Marty’s paternal grandparents to move to their 55-acre farm in Escondido, California. With the hope of a better life, they pulled up roots and within a week, headed for the West Coast. A few years later, the family had saved enough money to buy an adjacent 5 acres, and eventually built a cement block house that four generations of the Day family lived in. Marty remembered running around with his childhood friends, barefoot unless he was in school, and more than once having to jump over a rattlesnake. When Marty was just 15, he lost his mother to a sudden event which he remembers as an aneurism. While he finished High School and for a couple years afterward, he worked alongside his father who had found employment as a house painter.

At the age of 20, Marty joined the United States Air Force, serving from 1956 to 1960. He was stationed at Walker AFB in Roswell, NM as a Tail Gunner on a B-36 bomber. Although he never saw active duty in a time of war, he narrowly survived the explosion of a refueling bomber in the open bay of an adjoining hangar, and was discharged Honorably at the end of his service. As the years passed, Marty looked back on his time in the military with ever-growing fondness.

Marty used his GI bill to attend California University at Long Beach, earning a bachelors in Business Administration in 1963. After spending 2 years as an Epidemiologist for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, he was hired as a Claims Representative for the Department of Social Security where he remained employed for 15 years. During this period, he married his first wife Kathryn (Keating) Day in Berkley, CA, 1965. They had 3 children together: David in 1968, Peter in 1970, and after moving to Washington State and transferring to an office in Seattle, they had Julie in 1972. The couple bought three acres of raw land near Belfair, moved two damaged single-wide mobile homes onto it, and spent the next several years building them into their home.

Marty had often dreamed of working for himself, and in 1980 he purchased Carburetor Specialties, an automobile repair shop in Seattle. Unfortunately, his marriage to Kathryn ended in divorce in 1981, and his business, which did not turn into the financial success he had hoped for, was sold in 1983. Many difficult years followed, as he navigated a variety of changing jobs and living situations, struggling to find his place once more in the world. Even so, he continued to lean on God, never abandoning his faith or blaming the misfortunes he suffered on Him.

In late 1989, Marty was working for Ioline (I-O-line) Corporation and attending Overlake Christian Church in Redmond, WA, when he met Susan Diede (Dee-Dee). This beautiful woman was working on developing her relationship with God much as he was, and it was not long before she won his heart and mind. They married on May 11, 1991 and began their life together, working always towards an ever-deepening understanding of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit that was the foundation of their commitment and love.

Marty continued to evolve in his career, becoming a Certified Netware Engineer from 1994-2000, a bus driver for King County Metro from 2000-2002, and after a slight pause to miraculously beat pancreatic cancer in 2003, closed out his working years as a Homeowners Insurance Investigation Photographer from which he retired in 2005. They moved to Port Townsend, Washington, that same year and enjoyed the beautiful waterfront community, until his daughter Julie invited them to live with her in Klamath Falls in 2017, where he remained until his passing.

Marty passed in his home in Klamath Falls on Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at 9:05 in the evening of natural causes, surrounded by his family. He knew he was safe, he knew he was loved, and when his daughter whispered to him, “If you see Jesus, papa, just run to him,” he did. He was preceded in death by his brother Justin Leander Day (1928-1994), and sister Rosemary Jean Blackwell (1934-2014). He is survived by his loving wife of 33 years, Susan, and his children and grandchildren: David and his wife Bekki and his daughter Erin; Peter and his wife Teresa and their children Ethan, Kyle and EvaMarie, and his daughter and son-in-law, Julie and Ben Hight.

A Memorial Service was held on Saturday, June 1, 2024 at United Evangelical Free Church in Klamath Falls, Oregon, with burial of ashes to follow at a later date in Wenatchee, Washington.