14GI.  Walter Phillip Youngblood was born in Harvey, Illinois, on Tuesday, July 30, 1935, and died in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, on January 25, 2000. Barbara Frances Knight was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Tuesday, July 4, 1939. They were married in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 1, 1962. She took the name Barbara Frances Youngblood. He is the son of Henry Aurel and Eleanor (Quigley) Youngblood. She is the daughter of Franklin Burns and Eleanor Ida (Reed) Knight. They had three children:

In July 2002, Barbara Youngblood wrote:

Walt attended schools in Midlothian, Illinois, and several schools in Michigan, at least one of which was an old-fashioned one-room school. His growing up years were spent mostly as a country boy, the youngest child in his family. He graduated from Mattawan High School in 1954, and four months later his father, Henry, died suddenly of a heart attack. He stayed at home with his mother, working in Kalamazoo to help support them, and attended Western Michigan University from 1957 to 1960, while working full-time. In Sept. 1960 he decided to pursue his dream of becoming an engineer and made the big step of moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to attend the University of Michigan.

In May of 1961 Walt met Barbara at the University of Michigan on a blind date. She was a senior about to graduate in a month. They maintained a long distance relationship after she graduated and moved to Elyria, OH, to work as a reporter on a newspaper. He proposed on Sept. 1, 1961, and a year later exactly they were married in Ann Arbor. Walt was still working on his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and Barb supported them by working at the University in the Journalism Dept. Walt graduated June 1963, 3 weeks after their first child, Mark, was born.

After graduation Walt and Barb moved to Lansing, Michigan, where Walt worked for the Michigan State Highway Department. In 1966 Walt joined 3M Co. in Minnesota, working as an engineer in the technical service area. In 1976 at the age of 40 Walt suffered a massive heart attack as he was drilling a hole in the ice of Silver Lake, planning on spending the afternoon ice fishing with his children, Scott and Lynn. Somehow he managed to drive himself and the children 5 miles to home, where he collapsed. He spent a month in the hospital, recovering from the attack. He sustained major heart damage.

He returned to work 3 months later, and changed his lifestyle to accommodate his heart condition. Six years later he had quadruple bypass surgery, and recovered quickly, returning to work in a month. Despite his heart condition and its limits on his lifestyle, Walt continued to work successfully, raise his family and enjoy all the rewards of life. He retired January 1, 1997, after 31 years with 3M.

Six months after his retirement, his health began to worsen due to congestive heart failure, and he began a series of treatments, including open-heart surgery to replace 2 valves, do 2 bypasses, and sew up a hole in his heart, which was discovered at the time of the surgery. The surgery was very difficult and only partially successful. His general health began to deteriorate as his heart muscle weakened. He endured several more surgeries and arduous infusion therapy twice weekly at the hospital. Despite the best medical care, and the newest techniques, he continued to decline. The hole in his heart opened again and was repaired in a special surgery at the University of Minnesota, where a mesh patch was placed by being fed through his vein in the groin into the heart. The surgery to close the hole was very successful and led to approval of this new procedure by the FDA. He was one of 100 test patients.

Unfortunately, his heart continued to fail due to atherosclerosis and damage from his heart attack 24 years earlier. On January 25, 2000, Walt passed away at home. He was only 64. His father had passed away 45 years earlier at 63 of similar heart problems. Walt's heart was donated to research at the Heart Hospital where he had been treated.

Walt was an avid fisherman and outdoorsman. When the children were growing up, Walt and Barb took the children camping on summer weekends. They also made sure to travel back to Michigan at least once a year to keep in touch with Walt's family.

Walt was very much a "people person," a Youngblood trait. He loved providing community service, whether as a Boy Scout leader, Lions Club President, Jaycee State Chairman, Basketball Booster president, church vestry, community activist, etc.

During his years at 3M Company, he traveled extensively, and visited 49 of the 50 states (missing only Alaska), plus Canada and Mexico. He and Barb especially liked traveling to Victoria, British Columbia, and New Orleans.

In her Christmas letter of 2000, sent after Walt died, Barbara included the following little story that he had written about his childhood.

Christmas Trees of My Childhood
by Walt Youngblood

The Christmas season brings back so many fond memories of my childhood and the Christmas trees that we had that I decided to reminisce. It was our custom to put the Christmas tree up on Christmas Eve and leave it up until my mother's birthday on January 6th.

The earliest trees that I can remember are those that we had when I was a young child living in Midlothian, IL, during the late 30's. Times were hard for us, and the house we lived in had neither electricity nor running water. We used real lighted candles on these trees and kept numerous pans of water sitting around to put out any fires that might start. The pleasant aroma of the tree and melting candles represented Christmas to me in those early years.

One year during this time we could not afford to buy a tree, so one of my brothers came home Christmas eve with the base of a tree that someone had cut off a larger tree. My mother decorated this as if it were the best tree in the world, candles and all. The next morning, Christmas Day, another brother came home with a full tree that someone had taken down, so we replaced the tree base with this tree—after all there were still many days left in the Christmas season!

In the early 40's we moved to Michigan to a farm near Cheshire Center, about 8 miles southwest of Allegan. Times were still hard and buying a tree, even though it cost very little, was out of the question. My brother, Peter, took it upon himself to provide us with a tree while he was out rabbit hunting. He used the shotgun to "cut down" a swamp cedar that was nicely shaped. After bringing it home and getting it set up in the house, it soon became apparent why cedar trees are not used for Christmas trees. Once it warmed up, it began to give off a terrible odor! The odor was so bad that we had to remove the tree and replace it with a long needled white pine which was also "cut" from the wild.

While we lived on this farm, World War II ended. My brother Jim, who had been injured in the war, was due to come home. He was recovering in an Army Hospital near Fort Sheridan, IL, and we expected him to be released in time for Christmas in 1945. However, his recovery time was extended, so he did not make it home for Christmas. My mother, who had planned for his return at Christmas for so long, was deeply disappointed that he wouldn't be able to make it, so after Christmas she had the decorated tree moved out onto our enclosed porch where she watered it every day to keep it fresh until he came home.

The day Jim finally arrived was a big surprise. Not many country families had phones, so the custom was to leave phone messages at the country store for local families. One day my father and I were at the local country store when a phone call came in telling us that Jim was arriving at a small town about ten miles from where we lived and that his bus was due to arrive at any moment. We dropped everything and immediately left for the bus depot without going home to tell my mother. What a wonderful late Christmas celebration we had. It was the middle of April!

A few years later, we moved to a small farm near Kalamazoo, MI, where my father got a job with Kalamazoo County. One Christmas eve, I was out rabbit hunting with a buddy. We stopped at his house to warm up. His brother let my dog in also and the dog was immediately drawn to their Christmas tree, where he promptly relieved himself—on the tree and the presents under it. We did our best to wipe up the mess and then snuck out to resume our rabbit hunting!

In the early 50's, I was a teenager delivering flowers for a local florist during the holiday season. It was Christmas eve and I had forgotten to get a tree for my mom. So, while driving back to the florist shop late that evening after completing our deliveries, we made one last stop—it was a local Christmas tree lot, closed for the season by its owner. I "borrowed" not one tree, but two, so my mother would have a choice. I figured there wasn't going to be much of a market for them on Christmas Day. Of course, my dear mother never knew that I helped myself to that memorable tree.

• Personal interviews and letters.