Dwain Erle Vanderhoof

Dwain Erle Vanderhoof
Born January 09,1932 in Plymouth, Wisconsin
Passed away peacefully September 24,2024 in Santa Barbara, California

Dwain grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He attended Oshkosh State College. During High School and College, Dwain was involved with the school’s theater groups, choral groups and baseball. He graduated from Oshkosh State College in 1954 with a degree in Secondary Education with English and Geology majors.

He married Julie Ann Baumgartner of Oshkosh and entered the US Army upon graduation. He spent half of his service time in the Electronics and Radar schools at Ft. Monmouth, NJ. He then taught Radar Repair at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds until his discharge in April 1956.

With his electronics training and his English major, Dwain was well suited to become a Technical Writer at AC Spark Plug in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The company was just beginning their work with Ballistic Missile Inertial Guidance for the US Air Force. His first task as a technical writer was to create a technical manual for Thor Inertial Guidance System. This was the nation’s first all-inertial ballistic missile guidance system. As part of Tech Publishing Dwain worked on virtually every proposal for major military weapon’s systems prepared by AC during these formative years. He also worked on the Guidance and Navigation Systems for both the Apollo Command Module and the Lunar Module, the Titan Space Booster guidance systems, and an all-inertial navigation system for the Boeing 747 aircraft. The Boeing system was the first such system to be utilized in a commercial aircraft. This was an exciting time in the company’s history as well as an exciting job for Dwain.

Because of his emphasis on new business proposal activity Dwain spent many weeks in California at AC’s Research and Development Laboratory in Los Angeles as well as their Research Laboratory in Santa Barbara, CA. When the company, now called Delco Systems Operations, combined its Engineering activities at Santa Barbara. Dwain and his family were transferred to Santa Barbara where he became Department Head of Engineering Publications.

Upon relocating to California Dwain became an avid motorcyclist. For 25 years, with Julie on the back, he rode 186,000 miles on several BMW motorcycles. Upon his retirement Dwain spent many hours on local golf courses and many more on his computer. He and Julie travelled frequently. They sometimes attended Elder Hostels, but more often visited US and European destinations through several International Home Exchange organizations.

Dwain is survived by Julie, his loving wife of 70 years, his sons Jon (Elen) Vanderhoof and Jeff (Hiroko) Vanderhoof of Tokyo, Japan. His son-in-law, Richard Perez, his grandchildren Jeffrey Vanderhoof, Anne Vanderhoof Smith (Sam), Amy Perez and Lisa Vanderhoof. He also was able to meet his great-grandchildren Arthur and Addie Smith. He was pre-deceased by his daughters Kathy Vanderhoof and Ruth Ellen Perez.

Dwain lived a long and fruitful life. He was a kind and loving Son, Brother, Husband, Father, Grandfather and Great-Grandfather.

There will be a 2:00 pm memorial service on Saturday, October 26, 2024 at Christ Lutheran Church, 6595 Covington Way, Goleta, CA.