Don Dickson Hamilton

Don D Hamilton, age 93, of Los Gatos and Aptos passed away on May 26, 2022 surrounded by the unending love of his four children. Don was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 19, 1929 and raised on a farm in Flossmoor Illinois, the son of Alice Abigail Blyer and David Wallace Hamilton. During childhood he was walking a cow home from a neighboring pasture when the cow bolted for home. He was dragged by the cow's chain he had wrapped around one arm and gravel was embedded in his free arm. His mom bandaged it up, and you could feel that gravel in his arm for the rest of his life. He attended Flossmoor schools throughout childhood and graduated with a bachelor’s of science degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of technology in Chicago in 1952. During college he worked as a handyman on his dad’s properties in downtown Chicago and also for the Illinois Central Railroad in Homewood. An avid lifelong sailor, he met his future wife, Emma Jean Orr while pulling his Lightning sailboat thru Burns Ditch that connected the Gary Boat Club to Lake Michigan. Later in life he was a member of the Santa Cruz Yacht Club and on the Santana 22. Shortly after graduation he married and drove to Death Valley, California to work as a civilian employee at the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake on top secret projects. He took his security clearance very seriously and would never divulge what projects he worked on during his lifetime. He and Emi also fell in love with California and vowed to return. It was in China Lake that his first child, Doug Hamilton, was born. He moved back to Illinois to farm with his brother Alan, and his daughters Anne, Susan and Julie were born in Illinois. After working at Allis Chambers in Springfield, IL, he moved the family back to California after secretly getting a job at the FMC Corp. in San Jose. At FMC, and later EDS, he worked on the design and development of the USPS mail sorting machines, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the M113 troop carrier, and the P8 amphibious landing craft. He was a long time member of the San Jose Sailing Club, and the family loved small boat sailing of a Lido 14, Sunfish and El Toros. After retiring from engineering he started a container storage business with his son, and designed and built a trailer to deliver shipping containers. He was a real estate agent, and bought sold real estate in Felton, Santa Cruz, Los Gatos and San Jose. He designed and built two homes in Aptos, where he lived in his later years. He loved sailing, hiking, travel, tinkering, water aerobics, designing, investing and spending time with his family and friends. Don built a life his children were proud of and they were honored to call him “Dad”. Don will be dearly missed by all those who knew and loved him; his children Doug Hamilton, Anne Hamilton-Barclay, Susan (Dan) Christ, and Julie (Kavin) Desai; his beloved grandchildren Andrew, Megan, Caitlin, David, Tiffany, Brianna, Anjuli, Gabriel, Maya and Amelia; and his adored great grand children Clara, Callum, Audrey, Luna, Harlow and Emma.

Don Dickson Hamilton

April 19, 1929 - May 26, 2022