Rodney Gibson Seiler, a longtime telephone engineer, a proud Marine, lifelong learner and devoted teller of dad jokes, died November 16, 2023, of congestive heart failure. He was 89.
Rodney was born in Agana, Guam, September 1934 to Charles and Alice Seiler. Charles was a major in the Marine Corps and Alice was a homemaker. He was preceded in death by his older brother, Chuck Seiler.
After graduating from Grossmont High School in La Mesa, Calif., in 1952, Rodney served in the Marine Corps from 1953 to 1956. He spent time in Korea as a radio operator and achieved the rank of corporal. On his return from Korea, he married his high school sweetheart, Marilyn Lee Downs, in 1955.
Soon after, he embarked on a career as a telephone engineer. He liked to say a physics textbook he happened to read before his interview helped him get hired at Pacific Telephone. After retiring in 1989, he worked for several other phone companies across the U.S. and in Tijuana.
In 2008, after Marilyn’s death, he retired for good, from CC Communications in Churchill County, Nevada. He returned to California, initially living in Lake Elsinore.
Rodney met Mercedes in February 2012 and they married on July 15, 2012.
If he wanted to learn something, he did. That applied to both work and play. He regularly enrolled in college classes he chose either to better a skill or learn something new. He excelled as an amateur photographer and shared his love of photography with his family. He was an avid pilot of radio-controlled planes, helicopters and drones. When he wasn’t looking for the latest and greatest electronic gadget, he was likely mulling over which car to buy next. Although not the sexiest car he owned, the Citroen 2CV was a definite favorite.
In the mid-1960s, Rodney became aware of a place called Peppermint Ridge in Corona, CA after one of his kids visited it on a youth group outing. The facility provides a family-like living experience for disabled people who cannot live alone. Rodney would support it through charitable donations for the rest of his life. He and his dog Seymour would make a point of visiting residents. They were named Volunteers of the Year in 2009. Service to others was impressed on the family and modeled by both parents.
Rodney was among a group of telephone employees who were among the first to respond to a fiery Greyhound bus crash in Baker that killed 20 and injured 12 caused by a wrong-way driver. They pulled passengers from the burning bus and drove them to the closest hospital in Barstow. For these heroic actions, Rodney and his coworkers were awarded the Theodore Vail award by the phone company.
He is survived by his wife, Mercedes, whom he married in 2012; his children, Elaine Seiler, Sheila Lagrand and Timothy Seiler; his “bonus daughters,” Libia Taylor and Mercedes Rammer; five grandchildren, Elaine Matoushek, Neil Crum, Grant Crum, Allison Seiler, Craig Seiler; and four great-grandchildren, Cadence Moran, Sawyer Matoushek, Daphne Matoushek, Ta’aroa Crum.
Friends and family were always welcome in his home. He told his share of dad jokes long before they were a thing. And if you were going to do something, you’d better do it the right way. That included getting a permit from the city council to paint house numbers on curbs so his kids could raise money to go to band camp. He paid attention to detail like no one else, once fully reassembling the razor blade that Sheila had chewed up to make sure she had not swallowed any of the pieces.
Burial will be on December 8, 2023, at Riverside National Cemetery. A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, December 9 in Huntington Beach CA. For those wishing to make a memorial gift, the family suggests donating to Peppermint Ridge.
Thanks for everything, Dad. You really were the best