 GETZ, JESSE LEE On May 25, 2013, long-time Albuquerque resident Jesse Lee Getz succumbed to injuries he received during a fall at his home at age 94. His wife for 55 years, Rea Elizabeth Gregg Getz, an Albuquerque public school teacher for several decades, predeceased him during 1996. Jesse Lee Getz was born in Alliance, Ohio, during 1918. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the United States Navy Air Corps while working during his early twenties as a railroad machinist and attending engineering classes at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Throughout World War II he piloted a PB-Y cargo plane in the Pacific theatre, during which time he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. After the war ended, he served in the Naval Reserves for several decades. After receiving a post-war Mechanical Engineering degree from Ohio State University during 1952, Jesse took an engineering job with Mead Corporation in Chillicothe, Ohio. In late 1955 he was hired by Sandia Corporation and moved his family to Albuquerque, wherein his parents Ralph Van Getz and Hilda Marie Getz, as well as his brother Eugene Getz and his family, lived. After retiring from Sandia Corporation during the 1970's, he spent the last forty years of his retirement successfully playing the stock market. Jesse Lee Getz is survived by his son Steven Lawrence Getz; grandson Steven Eric Getz, his wife Tamara and their daughters Savannah and Carly; grandson Ethan Getz, his wife Eve and their daughter Caroline; his daughter Shekinah Hannah and her daughter Jennifer Kukainis; his youngest daughter Carolyn Marie Getz and nephew Richard Wurtzel whom he helped raise during the early 1960s. They will all miss his paternal guidance dearly. Throughout his life, Jesse Lee Getz had a strong sense of duty, honor and integrity, which was reflected in his unwavering service to his country and his family. His remains, cremated by Daniels Family Funeral Services, will be buried with military honors next to his wife's grave at the National Cemetery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Friday, July 12, 2013.
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