J. Marvin Lekstrum, 79

| June 13, 2012 9:15 PM

Marvin passed away from cancer on June 10, 2012, in Coeur d’Alene. He was 79. He died peacefully, surrounded by his many close friends. Marv was loved and respected and will be sorely missed.

Marvin was born on Sept. 24, 1932, and was raised on a homestead in 29 Palms, Calif. He was a loving parent to his daughters, Valerie and Tamara. After his first wife Peggy passed away in 1995, he married Shirley Lawson in 1997. They lived happily together in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene until her death in 2008.

Marvin had a talent for math and science and received a full scholarship to MIT, where he attended for a time until transferring to the Virginia Military Institute. He earned his B.Sc. in physics in 1955. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force and worked as an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. Later he worked in more than 80 countries as an engineer and senior manager for a variety of telecommunication companies. He moved west in 1982 to become vice president of international operations at ISC Systems Corp., in Spokane.

After “retiring” in the mid-1990s, Marvin became a popular and engaging substitute science teacher for the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy. He considered this his dream job. He was elected commissioner of the Lakes Highway District Commission for two terms. Marv was an active member of the Reagan Republicans, the Pachyderms and an Associate member of the Kootenai County Republican Women, and the Church of the Nazarene. Not bad for a kid who grew up without electricity in the isolated California desert.

Marvin is survived by his two daughters, Valarie Hoover and Tamara Lekstrum; their spouses, David Hoover and Josh Korman; and grandchildren, Jeremy, Anna and Oliver.

He will be forever remembered by them as a patient, devoted and generous Dad and Grandpa who loved food, travel and arguing politics with his family. We love him so.

A memorial service will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday, June 14, 2012, at the Church of the Nazarene (Fourth Street) Coeur d’Alene.

English Funeral Chapel, Coeur d’Alene, has been entrusted to handle final arrangements. Please visit Marvin’s online memorial at www.englishfuneralchapel.com.