My grandfather, Donald Ross "D.R." Naggatz, died today at 90 years of age. He was born in 1923 in Hastings, Nebraska. He was a sailor, fought, and almost died in WWII. He was a wonderful family man and leaves behind his wife of 63 years, four children, eleven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. He and my grandmother Beryl lived a long time together in North Dakota on a farm and raised their three boys and one girl with good faith and a loving grace. Although he did not have the greatest parents growing up, he became a wonderful father and later grandfather and great-grandfather. His father died in 1934 and his mother remarried in 1937 to an abusive man who adopted D.R. Shortly after, D.R. decided to live with his brother, Elmer. Elmer and D.R. went into business together owning a gas station and added a garage and farm machinery dealership. D.R. stayed in business with his brother until a fire destroyed it in 1952. Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he signed up for the military and lied about his age so he could be accepted. He traveled all over the world and had serious tests of his faith. One incident that happened was in the Arctic Ocean. His ship was attacked by German bombers and sank. He floated in frigid water, grasping onto ice, and soon found a life raft; there was a dead man in it. D.R. sent him overboard and climbed in. He remembers seeing polar bears on the ice and swimming around him!. At one point, a German submarine surfaced and had guns pointed at my grandfather asking him where the Captain was. He thought surely, he would die now, but thankfully, the Germans only wanted the food and supplies that were floating around the lifeboat and left him there. What a scary encounter! After 3 days, a British vessel rescued him . He stayed for 2 weeks in a Russian hospital recovering. His legs and feet had swollen so much from the cold that they had to cut the clothes and boots off of him, but he kept his limbs, while others around him lost them due to frostbite and gangrene. Later, he would participate in sea support of the Battle of Iwo Jima. He was also in Tokyo Bay on the USS Wilkes-Barre on Sept. 2, 1945, as the Japanese signed statements of surrender aboard the nearby USS Missouri. “I watched the signing from the ship,’’ he said. “I could practically read it.’’ He worked in North Dakota's National Guard as Administrator for Company 1, 47th division 1955-1957 (Rank-Sergeant First Class). Worked for the U.S. Government Department of Agriculture as a Program Specialist for local ASCS, Richland County, North Dakota. Later Transferred to Traverse County, Minnesota as office manager of local ASCS 1957-1964. Worked for Morrison Knudson construction Co., Boise, Idaho. Was in Vietnam for 18 months sailing ships for military transportation service to Manila, Phillipine Islands. He married Beryl Barner in 1950. He was friends with her brother and knew her growing up. One of my favourite stories, of when they were a new couple, is when Beryl chucked an egg at him because he finally had the nerve to ask her to prepare the eggs a little less over-cooked! Needless-to-say, he never asked again, and her cooking improved anyways! They purchased a hardware store in Fairmount, North Dakota in 1967. They made enough money to build a pool and were the probably the only ones in town that had one because all the neighbor kids would wait for them to raise the pool flag when it was safe to swim! There are a lot of memories in Fairmount about the Naggatz' pool. Russia awarded grandpa the Medal of Ushakov, a Soviet-era award for military personnel who helped protect the maritime borders of the Soviet Union. Grandma took the phone call from the Russian Embassy when they sought information on her husband. “Right, this is the Russian Embassy,’’ she recalled saying. “I just didn’t believe it.’’ In April of 2008 he was part of the Honor Flight to D.C. to see the WWII memorial as well as the other memorials. He also met former senator Bob Dole! (In light blue jacket.)
One of my favourite things to do when I lived with my grandparents was to watch old musicals with my grandpa. "My Fair Lady" was our favourite and we watched it often. D.R. was an incredible person and when he was younger, he memorized many poems. His family would put him up on a table and make him recite and he just blew everyone away. One of my favourite poems that he would recite was "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and it stuck with me for years to come. Some of the other poems he would recite are: "The Table and the Chair" & "Casey at the Bat" He was always joking around and picking and flirting with waitresses, nurses, etc, and he would pick on us kids in all love and happiness. For example: "How many mole-assess does it take to fill a jar of molasses?" That one stumped me for a while haha! As they say, "All great things must come to an end," and so it was for D.R. His wit, humor, and sharp memory lasted for many years and only in recent months, after a surgery to help repair a leak around his stint (to repair an aneurysm), did he start to slip into forgetfulness and slowly his health went downhill. It was during this time in October 2013 that my mother came to visit him after his surgery. I will always remember going in to see him with my husband also and D.R. not recognizing my mother or me, but was very happy to see Chris! It was such a wonderful gift to my husband and I am glad for it. He was able to return to his home and spent his last Thanksgiving and Christmas surrounded by family and doing pretty well. But it was not to last. In January, grandma injured her back and could no longer physically care for him so the decision was made to place him in a nursing home for rehab and continued care. My mother came to help grandma and visited with grandpa, all the while, he was slowly losing his memory, and starting to live in the past. While visiting him, I dared to ask him to recite "The Table and the Chair" and he immediately said it with perfect clarity and didn't hesitate or skip a beat. It was the last poem he recited and it will always hold a special place in my heart. On Friday, January 24th, I went down to visit my grandmother. Grandpa was not doing well and I wanted to visit him before the weekend. The weather was cold and we had a lot of icy rain and sleet in the area; the first in many years. D.R. was heavily sedated, breathing was shallow and sounded of pneumonia. His hands, soft and warm, were placed gently on the bed, and next to the bed, grandma sat. Her hand was placed gently on his head and her other rested on his arm. His wedding band on her finger. With the constant rhythm of his breathing the only sound, I decided this would be a good a time as any, and proceeded to read my favourite poem to him: "The Cremation of Sam McGee." My voice broke a couple of times, but I carried on. My grandmother listened and when all was done seemed to enjoy it while her eyes misted over with tears. When at last we said farewell, my grandmother leaned forward and kissed him gently. Her final words to him were, "I loved you for 63 years and I will love you for years to come." A few hours later...we received the phone call that he had passed on, in his sleep, and in peace. Farewell to you, Sir. Donald Ross Naggatz
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