Norman Jack Leininger

Norman Jack Leininger was a devoted husband, a loving father, a supportive grandfather and a great grandfather.  He is the son of Hilda and Russ Leininger.  He grew up with his brother, Russell and his sister Neola.

Norman and Janet have been married for 58 years.  They got married on September 20, 1958, in Stevenson, Washington.  They met at the Division Street Corral, where he asked her to dance.  They celebrated their 50 ^th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows at Holgate Baptist Church with family and friends.  Together they had a daughter, Norma.

He worked for the family business, Leininger Polishing and Plating all his life.  He did everything from working the tanks and polishing at the wheel, to making deliveries, he would drive long distances to take finished work to a client.  One of his favorite things was talking with customers and leading his work crews.  Even after he retired, he and mom started a lawn mowing business, because they wanted to stay busy.

He and Janet loved to fish.  In his own boat at the lake or going deep sea fishing in the Pacific Coast, it didn’t matter.  The bigger the fish the more exciting the trip was.  Even Smelt fishing with a net was considered fun.  He also loved to walk and ride his bike.  There were many times he rode his bike from home to the coast.

Norman had many hobby adventures over the years, panning for gold, searching for treasures in the sand with his gold finder, card counting, bronzing baby shoes, selling Shaklee vitamins, wanting to catch Squaw fish because they were rare, learning the commodity market and traveling.  He took his family to England for Christmas one year and to Hawaii for the summer, and countless road trips all over the U.S.

My dad taught me to treat everyone with respect, always be patient – as losing your temper will not fix the problem, the importance of choosing my friends wisely -  “your friends will make or break you”,  the importance of working hard and being a good leader and that family always comes first.  My dad was my rock, he always knew what to say, the thing I will miss the most is our talks.

His grandson Daniel says: My grandfather was an extraordinary man who would give you the shirt off his back if you were in need. He was the most gentle and wise man I knew. He taught me how to be hard working and take pride in everything I do. Anytime I was going through a hard time he always knew how to comfort me and guide me to the best of his ability. Some of my best memories in life, are of my grandfather.  He was a very simple man who I could just sit with for hours and share old memories and laugh. I could always talk to him about the similarities we had during our time serving in the military. He was always motivated and always saw the glass half full. Norman is a man who touched a lot of people over his time; He will be very missed by many people. Always and forever Semper Fidelis.

His granddaughter Dixie says:  Grandpa was very loved and will be missed dearly.  I will never forget the time we spent going out smelt fishing for the day with him and grandma. We would pack up and go on our little journey to get to his favorite fishing hole.  I enjoyed all our talks, hearing about all his ideas for different things, he always had an idea about something he could do.  I remember all the times driving around with him and grandma to garage sales and listening to Grandpa's sports on the radio. He always had to listen to his ball games it did matter if it was baseball or basketball. I will miss Grandpa sticking his hand out for a hand shake when I left and saying "well it was good to see you." He was never much of a hugger. Love you Grandpa, I will see you again someday.