GARY'S LIFE IN DELAWARE

Gary with Pastor Ingram at a picnic in the Worthington's back yard.

GARY’S LIFE IN DELAWARE
[Abridged Version]
Gary was transferred when he lived in Pennsylvania to Delaware by the Firestone store that he worked for in Trenton, he had asked for the transfer.
He moved into an apartment in Dover and worked at the Firestone store in Dover and later bought a trailer in Dover. He was soon dissatisfied with that job and started applying for jobs in the area. He applied at George & Lynch a concrete plant as a truck mechanic. He was hired and started working there, he then started looking for a house in the area.
He bought a run down farmhouse on two large lots in the area and moved into it. The house was barely livable so he started to make improvements. Before he was done he had completely gutted the house and rebuilt it inside, he sided the outside of the house with vinyl siding and put in new windows.

DON & MARSHA LaDuc

During this time he had met Don & Marsha LaDuc, Don ran a surplus store for Nanticoke Home’s, a home builder in the area. Don and Gary became best friends. Gary would stop at the store often and buy surplus building supplies from Don This made the renovating of the house much cheaper. I think he sided the whole house with siding he bought at the surplus store. Every time they would finish a house they would bring all the leftover supplies to the store and Don would sell them.
George & lynch were supplying concrete for new runways at the Dover air base, whenever the concrete was rejected the drivers would call Gary at work and he would rush home and meet them there where he had already formed a new driveway at his house and a slab for the garage. This way he poured all this concrete for just tips to the drivers. It was a lot of concrete, a very large driveway and a 28’ x 28” slab for the garage.

Gary could figure most things out, but building the garage scared him so he called his brother Jack in Michigan to come down and help him. Gary sent the plans to Jack and he made up a material list and Gary had all the material delivered to the site.

Jack came down with a couple of friends and put up the shell of the garage. Gary made a second floor he wanted us [Helen & Me] to move into when I retired, which we did before we moved to Florida. Gary worked hard with a lot of help, and covered the shell with plywood siding, and put a roof on it. He later sided the garage with vinyl siding from Don's surplus store

The building was now closed in and the inside could be finished at a more leisurely pace. Helen and I would go down almost every weekend and stay and help him then go to church with Gary and his family Sunday then drive back to Pennsylvania Sunday evening.
I could not begin the name all the friends that helped Gary with this project. Gary had a lot of friends that he had helped with various projects and they helped him whenever he needed help.
After this he decided to replace a small room on the side of the house and make it into a master bedroom with a bath, this was a big job but that didn't faze Gary, he went ahead at nights and weekends and finished it. He and I also put central heat in the house, it only had a kerosene heater in the living room when he moved in.
One day on a Sunday we were in the driveway and Gary looked up at the house and said that bedroom on the second floor needs a window, He said “come-on lets go up to Lowe's and get one“, before I went back to Pennsylvania that evening that bedroom had a window. If you would give Gary a bucket of drywall mud and a couple tubes of caulk he could do any home improvement. This is just the way Gary did things.
I know I have left a lot out of this story, but I don’t want to make it to long.

Shirley and Pastor Ingram at the Space Center, notice the launch pad in the background.

Comment by Shirley Ingram I remember a lot of the Delaware story, it seemed Gary was his happiest when he had a project in process. But it was always fun to get the grand tour after the completion, he was really excited and rightly so. I am Pastor Ingrams wife and we enjoyed the Kenney family in our church for many years. Gary always ready to help or give advice to assist in any need. He had many friends and will be missed. Shirley Ingram

GARY'S JET BOAT

Thanks to Ron for these pictures

I was going to put this in Memories of Gary but this deserves a spot all to itself.
When Gary lived in Delaware, he always had a boat of some kind, he would buy and sell boats as the spirit moved him. If he saw a boat in someone’s yard that had not moved for awhile he would stop and ask if they wanted to sell it. He would bicker with them for a couple of days and if he thought was worth the price he would buy it, then sell it when he got tired of it. I can’t remember all the boats he had but one stands out in my memory. It was a Slick Craft jet boat about sixteen feet with a 454 Chevrolet engine all chrome with big header exhaust pipes [boy was it loud] when he bought it was not running right. It turned out that it needed a cam shaft. That did not bother Gary, he ordered a full race cam shaft from a speed shop and put it in.

He then found out the boat would only go sixty miles an hour so he sent the jet assembly to Ohio to be reworked, he wanted it to go at least seventy miles an hour. He was always trying to get me to go out for a ride in the Delaware Bay, what a ride, sixty miles an hour over a bumpy road, one ride was enough for me., I came home hurting and exhausted.
One day he talked me into going with him to the Murder Kill River [a Dutch name that means something?] that runs from Dover to the Delaware Bay, how much trouble can you get into in a little river? We were going down the river at a slow pace when we came to a sharp turn to the right in the river, the redneck in Gary surfaced, watch this, he gave it everything the boat had and we started roaring along when we made the turn, a wind was coming up the river and we went airborne. We ended about thirty feet into the marsh. What to do? we walked through the marsh in black muck up to our necks till we found a house, Gary knocked and the man that came to the door was ready to shut the door in our face till Gary explained to him what had happened, he brought a phone to the door and Gary called a friend to come and pick us up.
To make a long story short it took a gang [the Ingram's and the LuDuc's] with pry bars another boat, a chain fall and the rest of the day to get the boat out of the marsh inch by inch.

THE LAST PICTURE TAKEN OF GARY

THE LAST PHOTO TAKEN OF GARY
This snapshot was taken by my granddaughter Aniliese, Saturday May 31 2008 at Durango’s Steakhouse Restaurant in Cocoa beach, Gary took us there to celebrate Amanda’s graduation from high school. We then all went outside to view a Shuttle Launch. I feel this is the last photo taken of Gary before he was murdered. This photo has not been changed in any way it is just as it came from the camera.
Aniliese was visiting us from Michigan and she was here through all the commotion that followed Gary’s murder, I’m sure its something she will never forget.
We had flown her back with us to Florida when we came back from her sister Amy’s high school graduation in Michigan.
Our son Ron was downloading pictures from her camera after Analiese came home and found this picture. Gary looks troubled, this is because he is, he had been going through some personal troubles that would not go away and they were about to come to a head. Little did he know that all his troubles would be over soon.
I will leave justice to the court system and pray that it will be done.
As always, Gods will be done.

“THY WILL BE DONE IN EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN”
Matthew 6:10

GARY IN HAPPIER TIMES

The top left picture was taken at Nana Harper's 80th birthday.

The other is a picture of Gary and Josh horsing around.

This is Gary before the worries overtook him.

The bottom pictures were taken by Gary's brother Ron on a vacation back in

These are pictures of Gary before his family troubles overtook him.

Gary's brother Ron wrote this.
In 2006 we were visiting my parents in Florida and I went to a children’s soccer game with Gary. At the time Gary was working out with weights (as you can see). While we were there Gary and I took a motorcycle ride. He rode his super fast sport bike and I rode the much slower street/dirt bike. Florida does not have a helmet law, although with my limited riding skills, I wore one. I remember Gary riding in front of me with his flattop hair cut, cool sunglasses and newly acquired muscles. He looked much tougher than I did!
While we were at the soccer game I told him to show me the “gunboats” and he struck this pose. This picture really illustrates something about Gary. When he did something, he gave it his all. I’m not sure how much he weighed in this picture, but he must have been pushing 200. When he died he couldn't’t have weighed much more than 150. Why? He was running six miles a day. He had taken on the body of a long distance runner.

Gary's Dad;

I wish Gary looked like that because he was running, Helen and I were very close to Gary before this happened. He came to our house on the way home from work often, and talked to Helen almost every day. He had asked Helen and me for advice about problems he was having, he was talking to me about very personal problems. He had never done this before, I gave some advice that was right, but was the wrong advice for his problem. I don’t think if I had given other advice it would have mattered. What happened was going to happen, the detectives told us Darryl was going to murder Gary whether it was now or later it was going to be done.

Gary’s spirit about things will surely be missed.

FLAG

This flag was presented to us by some of Gary’s coworkers. We feel pleased and honored that they would take the time to think of us and present this flag to us that flew over the Kennedy Space Center while Gary worked there.

Thanks Guys

Thoughts of Gary from Craig

Gary's brother Craig, his wife Kay, Eric and Kathleen

If I were to sit and write down all the memories and stories about my brother Gary it would form a tome probably rivaling Tolstoy's War and Peace in its length. Most of the stories would tell of Gary's love of things mechanical. Gary would pull a rusty old lawn mower out of some one's trash that hadn't run in years and we would be mowing our lawn with it the next day. Gary wasn't only concerned about the condition of the engine in his own vehicles but was always concerned about how every one else's car was running as many of his friends and relatives have already written down and stated.
My Mom and Dad, as well as me and my brothers and sister went through some heartbreaking times with Gary as well. But as Paul wrote in the book of Romans, "All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose." My whole immediate family as well as some of my extended family came to Christ and it all started with Gary.
I was amazed as I sat in the pew behind my parents at Gary's wake and listened to all the people who paid their respects that we didn't even know that Gary helped in some way. "Gary fixed my roof after a hurricane", " Gary drove all the way out to my house to help me put in a water pump" etc.
One word that seems to pop into my head when I think of Gary is 'fireworks" . Letting the 4th of July go by without about 2 tons of fireworks was anathema to Gary. I still remember the crater that was left in Jacks backyard in Bensalem. About 6 foot in diameter and about a foot deep. Gary would drive all the way to South of the Border every year and bring back a trunk load. (I still think he got some of them from a military base!)
One story I would like to tell. I went to visit Gary and my parents one weekend when they lived in Delaware and I remarked how much that I liked the watch that Gary had on. He took it off and gave it to me! It was a Rolex. (Of course it was a fake) but it was the best fake Rolex watch anybody ever saw. It was perpetual and the second hand swept just like a real one. It was the best watch I ever had. One day the stem came out and I couldn't set the time anymore and I never bothered to have it fixed. I looked all over for that watch after Gary's passing because I kept it but I haven't been able to find it. I hope that it turns up somewhere. We all miss you Gary.
Your Brother Craig
SOME COMMENTS BY CRAIG
I was always proud to tell my friends and co-workers that I had a brother that worked at the Kennedy Space Center. Every time there was a launch I always marveled that my brother Gary had a hand in it. Now whenever a shuttle or a rocket is launched I will think of Gary.
Its ironic seeing Gary in front of our old red and white Dodge van. The van eventually ended up being his later on.
I remember that Pat! I remember Mom taking him next door to the Conrey's because Jane Conrey was a nurse. The Conrey's also referred to Gary as "The Towhead". If I remember correctly he ended up at Lower Bucks hospital to have his stomach pumped.
From Dad,
He drank corn remover they didn't pump his stomach because they were afraid his stomach would blow out. They admitted him for observation.

Aunt Pat's Memories

I will never forget Gary:
Gary was the funniest kid I know. I remember when he filled soda cans with acytelene lit it and blew the window boxes off the house. He was always into something. Remember the time he got into the mini bike accident with Jimmy Beck? I can still hear that chuckle he had when he told you a story. He would always end his stories with a chuckle as he was walking away. When he would see me he would always say "Hey Aunt Pat how're doing?" When I first moved to Florida my car was brand new - only about 2000 miles on it and when I was down Helen & Jack's Gary came over and the first thing he wanted to do was change the oil in my car. There are so many things I remember - some of which have already been written about. I remember that time when he ate the neighbors cakes. I also remember the time he had to be taken to the hospital because he drank corn remover!! Talking about his repairs and inventions that grill he made is awesome. He was such a sincere guy - no wonder so many people loved him. He made so many people laugh.
Gary's Aunt Pat