Clyde Thacker was born December 22, 1908 in Elk City, Oklahoma. He died December 3, 2006 Lompoc. These numbers mean little other that he died an old man. It's the time in between that makes a life. He was from a generation that did not expect much or ask for much.

Clyde Thacker had a ringside seat to nearly 100 years of American history. His parents emigrated from West Virginia to Oklahoma territory where he was born 5 years later. After graduating from high school, he worked in the oil fields and played in the boom towns of the Texas panhandle. When the depression hit, the oil work dried up; he was forced to live with his sister for two years for there was no work to be had. He eventually got work laying in concrete forms on Boulder Dam.
He watched the Japanese planes make their torpedo runs on the 7th fleet at Pearl Harbor. Two weeks after the Battle of Midway he was shipped with a group of volunteers to rebuild the base. He returned to San Francisco where he worked the dirty job of spraying insulation in the shipyards. His wanderlust unsatisfied, he shipped out for Guam to build the breakwater in Apra Harbor in 1946. He returned to the mainland to work on the military prison at Camp Cook. There he met his future bride Marie Vieira. He eventually returned to Guam where he coaxed Marie into coming out with a promise of marriage and a "short" tour on Guam. 20 years later they ended their short tour and returned to Lompoc with 4 kids and a pension. The last 15 years of his life his wanderlust satisfied, he would sit in his chair on his ranch along Highway 246 watching the hills and the commuters whizzing by; they looked back at him knowing him only as the "old man in the chair".

Graveside services to be held at Lompoc Evergreen Cemetery on Saturday, December 9, at 11 a.m.

In lieu of flowers take a friend out for a drink and toast the old man. He preferred his bourbon the same way he preferred life: simple straight up with no amenities.

He is survived by his children Anita Elovitz, Verne, Brad and John Thacker, their spouses and 8 grand children.