Tehachapi News

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David Ray Quarles was born on April 23, 1935, in Bakersfield. He was the son of David Watson Quarles, of Paducah, Ky., and Frances May Quarles, of Hood River, Ore. While Dave was traveling to Florida, he was admitted to the Flagstaff Medical Center in Arizona, where he passed away on Friday, March 7.

Dave met his wife of 51 years, Elaine, in Bakersfield, when she was just 14 years old, and he was 16 years old. They were married on September 2, 1956, and moved to Tehachapi in 1969, where they raised four children.

Dave enlisted in the Air Force when he was 17 years old. After his service in the Air Force was completed, he mined uranium near White Canyon, Utah, for two years with his wife, Elaine and her parents, Dick and Jesse Hogue.

Later, Dave went to work for Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he worked for over 30 years. Dave was passionate about his work and loved to travel to Cape Canaveral to work on projects for various space programs in conjunction with NASA. Some of the launch teams that he was apart of were the Mariners, Viking 1 and 2, Voyager 1 and 2, Magellan, Galileo, Ulysses, Mars Pathfinder, and both of the Mars Rovers.

Dave is survived by his wife, Elaine, their four children, Dan, Mike, Kathleen, and Heather, and his sister, Ramona Kane. He has nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Dave had a love of hunting and the outdoors, which he passed on to his children and grandchildren. He loved to hunt and camp in the mountains along the Utah-Colorado border. Dave was happiest there, with a tent, his family, and a campfire.

There will be a private memorial service and celebration of Dave’s life held by the family in his beloved mountains in Colorado.