Lasting Memories

Aubrey O. Nelson Jr.
Feb. 23, 1919-April 20, 2006
Atherton, California

Aubrey O. Nelson Jr., 87, died April 20, 2006, after an intense but short illness in Palo Alto.

He was born Feb. 23, 1919, in Chicago, Ill., and then moved with his family to Portland, Ore., where he grew up. During high school, his family moved to Burlingame. Unhappy there he returned to Portland where he finished high school. He then attended San Mateo Junior College and Stanford University in the early 1940s.

Shortly after Pearl Harbor he enlisted in the U.S Army Air Corps where he was trained as a navigator. Then he flew many bombing missions over Germany in B24s. Shot down in 1944, he spent a year in prison camp Stalag Luft III. Upon his liberation, he returned to Palo Alto, where he met and married Dr. Marcia Miller. They settled in the Suburban Park area of Menlo Park, where they lived for 14 years. They then moved to Atherton where he lived until his death.

He was employed as a navigator with United Air Lines for more than 25 years until his retirement.

Loved ones recall him as a tinkerer, a fixer and a thinker -- always trying to figure out a better way to do things. He was passionate about old wooden power boats.

He was preceded in death by his wife of almost 50 years, Marcia Miller M.D., and is survived by his children, Peter A. Nelson M.D. and Katherine Nelson, both of Menlo Park; one daughter-in-law, Lisbeth Nelson of Menlo Park; and four grandsons. He particularly enjoyed the companionship of his ex-neighbor June Robbins of Healdsberg, Calif., following the death of his wife 9 years ago.