David Russell Hatch

David Russell Hatch was born November 12, 1953 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, to Capt. Kenneth Martin Hatch (Siletz/Aleut) and Althea Marion Mendenhall. His father's career in the Army Corps of Engineers took the family many places, and Dave grew up in Virginia, Hawaii, Kansas, Thailand, as well as Florence and Eugene, Oregon - he was fond of saying that Oregon State University was the first school he'd gone to for two straight years. He nearly finished a degree in mathematics, then decided to follow his father into civil engineering, graduating with B.S. in 1976 and his M.S. in 1978. Finally rooted, he driftboated and kayaked the rivers and hunted the hills of western Oregon, cementing a lifelong love of the home country of his father's people. He taught civil engineering at OSU, and then began a career designing traffic signals for the City of Portland. In 1981 he met and married Anna Marina Jaimes of Mesa, Arizona. In 1989 they had a son, Peter Sugus Hatch, before divorcing in 1993. His long years as a bachelor were happily ended in 2010 when he married Judy Kloos. From the early 1980s onward, Dave sought to serve the enduring, urgent needs of Oregon's indigenous communities and to protect the health of the lands, rivers, and ocean all Oregonians love. He worked through the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, helped begin OMSI's Salmon Camp science program for Native students, counseled OSU's Board of Visitors and the Howard Vollum American Indian Scholarship fund, co-founded the Elakha Alliance, served on the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, and chaired the Siletz Tribal Arts & Heritage Society. Over the years he served three separate stints on the Siletz Tribal Council; most recently elected in 2015, he began in the doublewide trailer that made up the tribal offices in the early post-restoration days of 1981-2. A severe allergic reaction took him from us suddenly on September 20, 2016. He is preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Herbert Hallam Hatch, and survived by Peter, Judy, Annie and her second son, Jesse Castro Jaimes; his brother Keith Hatch, sister Aileen Frey, four nieces, and one nephew. His ashes will be spread at sea where, he dearly hoped, the entwined sea otters, thick kelp forests and abundant fish runs of ancestral days will someday return. Public services, open to all, will be held at the Siletz Tribal Community Center (402 Park Way, Siletz, OR) at 3pm on October 8th. In lieu of flowers, please send donations on his behalf to the Siletz Tribal Arts & Heritage Society (PO Box 8, Siletz, OR 97380).

Tributes

David Russell Hatch

November 12, 1953 - September 20, 2016