Estill "Ed" DeWitt Jr. was born December 8, 1934, to Estill and Lena DeWitt of Claremore, Oklahoma. He passed away at home on 10/4/23, at the age of 88, with family by his side. Although he was born at a hospital, his crib was the bottom dresser drawer at home. He is predeceased by his sister, Mina Lee Schmoll, and husband, Bill Schmoll, from Tulsa, OK; and his sister Rhea Foster and her husband Earl Foster in Anchorage, Alaska. He is survived by Mary Pat, his wife of 57 years, daughter Kristi DeWitt-Quintero of Phoenix, AZ; daughter Kelli Whitehead of Rockwall, TX; and Richard DeWitt of Claremore, OK. He was a Depression baby. His father owned a grocery store and a dairy farm out of town where people would drop off their cats because they couldn't afford to feed them. He was a paperboy and delivered over 50 newspapers 7 days a week for 5 years. He had a second job working for a local airplane hangar and aviation operation which is where he first learned his passion for flying. He graduated from Claremore High School in 1954 and played the drums at special events and at sporting venues. He joined the Oklahoma National Guard for 4 years where he drove tanks and other military equipment, he was in charge of a firing range, and he trained as an aircraft radio repairman. His true love was aviation, and he began flying crop dusters at the age of 13. He worked for D.D. Funk Aviation in Claremore as a "clean-up boy" and worked his way up as an aircraft apprentice, trading labor for flying lessons. He held both a private and commercial pilots license in Alaska. He attended Spartan School of Aeronautics and worked with Land Air Corp which held U.S. government contracts to work on all military aviation equipment worldwide. He married his high school sweetheart and had two children, Kelli and Rick DeWitt. He was assigned to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, and Fort Rucker in Alabama. He was hired by the FAA and came back to Anchorage as an avionics installation technician. He remarried in Anchorage and had Kristi DeWitt. He hunted and fished as all Alaskans do. His wife, Mary Pat, would disguise caribou and moose meat with lots of spices so the family wouldn't complain, "Why can't we have regular food?" Several years ago, he and his wife downsized to a lakeside condo in Anchorage where they were constantly entertained by geese, ducks, grebes, loons, an American Eagle, a muskrat and a beaver. They maintained a "snowbird" home in the Phoenix area for the winter, and then relocated to Laveen, AZ, to a next generation suite attached to their daughter's home. Although he and his wife pulled up stakes in Alaska three years ago, their hearts remained in Alaska. Over the years, Ed owned avionics businesses and worked with the State of Alaska Aircraft Section, and eventually returned to FAA where he retired in 2003. He became interested in the 60's in gold mining. He took courses at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and studied mining and prospecting, and he owned several gold claims. His adventures would fill a book about daunted dreams, flooded creeks, landslides, broken equipment, crooks and a few deaths at nearby claims. But come "break up," last year's disasters became a new season of high hopes and adventures. His latest interest was fine tuning his invention for a creek-side gold recovery system for fine gold and small nuggets. He received a patent for his invention, "The Alaska Gold Catcher LLC,"in 2018. Everyone loved Ed. He was always helping friends and hesitated to ask for help. He was constantly fixing things and seldom threw anything away. Rick, his son, credited Ed by saying, "Something needed to be really trashed before dad would replace it with anything new." Ed will be missed by all of those who touch whose lives he touched. Many thanks to Royal Hospice for the care they provided for the last seven months. Donations may be made to Royal Hospice, 14809 N 73rd St., Scottsdale AZ 85260.