Obituary of Everett McNamara

EVERETT L. McNAMARA b. 7/22/1925 d. 10/25/2012 Born in a farmhouse in rural North Dakota, Everett and his family moved to Minnesota when he was a young boy. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Everett dropped out of High School at 17 years of age and rushed to enlist in the US Navy. After a harrowing incident when the troop carrier he was on was torpedoed and he survived shark attacks in the open Pacific, he was ultimately assigned to "MacArthur's Navy." He was a key member of what later came to be known as Navy Seals. His unit made numerous amphibious landings during the "island hopping" campaign in the Pacific, performing reconnaissance missions, capturing and interrogating enemy personnel, and gathering intelligence information PRIOR to the actual invasions by US forces. His unit captured a Japanese general and an admiral and was later credited with shortening the war by as much as two years. But the pride of Everett's life was the nearly 40 years he spent working in the space program on both the moon missions and landing and, later, the space shuttle. He was fascinated by space and man's efforts to explore it. His career was cut short when he suffered a heart attack in the late 1980s, and he never really felt like he was retired. Everett was a polite and gentle soul with a deep respect for others and will be greatly missed by the many people with whom he came into contact. He is survived by his only daughter, Lynne Fitch of Coeur d' Alene, and several nephews and grand nephews, nieces and grand nieces in California and Washington.