Harold Thomas DeMar

DeMar, Harold Thomas Harold Thomas DeMar passed peacefully on 4-2-15 after living a long and fruitful life. Born in Des Moines Iowa on 8-19-1924, the seventh of eight children to Chester DeMar and Evelyn Maude Coty, his family moved to Minneapolis Minnesota during his high school years where he became an accomplished musician, earning first violin chair, as well as winning many talent contests with his fiddle playing, guitar playing, and yodeling abilities, eventually winning a trip to compete in Madison Square Garden, though unable to attend due to circumstances beyond his control. These skills allowed him to appear regularly on local radio station programs with a goal of becoming a professional. However, at one such program, he would eventually meet Ethel E Jacobson, an accordion player, who would become his wife. They often played as a duet thereafter, and enjoyed playing in dance bands whenever they could. He was drafted into the US Navy in 1942, and after discharge apprenticed as a tool-and-die maker, a career which he eventually mastered and which served him for the majority of his earning years. He was arithmetically and mechanically gifted, which enabled him work proficiently in a variety of fields enabling him to find work when others couldn't, which he used to his advantage to feed the thirteen children they would eventually have together. He often worked three jobs simultaneously, quietly and with selfless diligence. After many relocations with his family throughout the Western United States, he settled in Albuquerque NM in 1960 and remained there for the duration of his life. He was a man of many interests, becoming an accomplished Luthier of some repute, building acoustic guitars, violins and mandolins, and dabbling with his inventions. His greatest talent was the gift of instruction, and after retirement began a second career as a machine shop Instructor at TVI, which gave both he and his students great satisfaction. He was preceeded in transition by his wife Ethel; and one son, Thomas, but leaves many great grandchildren, many grandchildren, as well as children, Leon (Lois), Daniel (Candice), David (Mary), Roger (Kim), Alan (Trudy), Thomas-deceased (Lois), Joseph (Rose), Mary (Jim), John (Patsy), Carol, Mathew (Polly), Suzanne (Dave), and Barney (Anne). He passed peacefully in the afternoon of Holy Thursday after receiving the Last Rites, which seems altogether fitting for a person of such strong faith. Services will be held Thursday, April 9, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. at FRENCH-Westside, 9300 Golf Course Rd NW, with Reception to follow. Interment will be at Sunset Memorial Park Cemetery, 934 Menaul, NE at 2:00 p.m. Please visit our online guestbook for Harold at . FRENCH - Westside 9300 Golf Course Rd NW 505-897-0300