A Blessed Life

Alan Adams Rattray was born March 19, 1955 in Winsor, Ontario, Canada. At the age of 6, the family moved to Inglewood, CA when his dad was offered a job with Penske Motor Racing. Southern California remained his home for 54 years until Alan, Gayle, Amanda and their 2 dogs moved to Georgetown, TX in 2015.

Alan was first introduced to speed skating when he was 9 years old. His dad brought him to the Culver City Ice Rink to try out for hockey, but when a speed skating coach approached his dad and offered to coach Alan, he decided to try speed skating instead. The coach saw his love for the sport, strong potential, and natural ability. The rest was history. Alan went on to win awards for speed skating throughout the US and Europe. Victory after victory, and medal after medal led to his greatest achievement – winning the National Indoor Speed Skating Championship. He later was inducted into the Hall of Fame and holds the world record in the indoor 440-yard race with a 37.5 second mark. The world record will always be" his" since the 440 yard race isn't part of the ISU program anymore.

Along with his love of speed skating, Alan shared his dad's passion for cars. He began buying and restoring used cars and selling them for profit. Some he hated to part with after putting so much love and hard work into them. His pride and joy was a restored 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 and proudly had a personalized license plate that read " Alan 77" which was his skating number and his lucky number.

He attended Venice High School, graduated in 1973, and later attended Santa Monica City College for
Mechanical Engineering. He was hired on at Hughes Aircraft Company (which is now Raytheon) for a position as Engineering Draftsman where he worked for over 36 years.

As a talented engineer, Alan's long and successful career at Hughes/Raytheon won him multiple accolades. He was awarded the Inventors and Authors Award 5 times which recognizes outstanding and innovative designs in Engineering. I'm sure a lot of you weren't aware of Alan's many accomplishments and talents because Alan was always so modest and humble- a trait we all loved in him.

He met Gayle at Hughes Aircraft in 1977. It was love at first sight for him! They later married in 1980 and bought their first house in Rancho Cucamonga, CA in 1980 where they lived for 4 years. Alan and Gayle moved again to Westchester, CA to be closer to work and family and welcomed their 1 ^st daughter, Shannon, in September of 1986. They moved back to Rancho so that Gayle could stay home to raise their family. 22 months later they welcomed their 2 ^nd daughter, Amanda, in July of 1988. Their family was now complete along with their 3 dogs.

Alan was always there for his girls through both their academic and sports achievements. He enjoyed watching their girls participate in soccer, track, and many more. "The best dad" actively participated in all their sports, taking great pride in their victories and disappointments in their defeats. He was assistant coach for Amanda's softball team, both girls played soccer and volleyball, but both loved and excelled in competitive club swimming. Alan rarely missed an event. He volunteered as timer for the swim events to be up close to the excitement, snack bar set up and clean up. He was always helping out when needed.

Since 1982, it was routine to take 4 to 5 trips a year to enjoy boating trips to Lake Mohave. The 4 of them and their dogs were known as the "River Rats." They camped, hiked, tubed, and water skied for many years and even had a favorite cove they would frequent. Alan enjoyed all water sports but mostly enjoyed Lake Mohave for its peacefulness, solitude and oneness he felt with nature. This was definitely his favorite place to be!

He loved the thrill and excitement of NASCAR racing and his favorite driver was #48 Jimmy Johnson. Alan and Gayle both enjoyed watching from the bleachers. Before the race they enjoyed their pit passes to see the cars up close and get pictures and autographs of the drivers. The start of the race gave him such excitement when those engines revved up and that flag started the race.

It was a Happy Father's Day in June of 2010 when Shannon and Amanda both graduated from college in the same ceremony from Cal-State San Bernardino. After his retirement in 2013, they moved here to Georgetown. Alan enjoyed the open land, wild life, gardening and the friendliness of the people in the city. He enjoyed playing a round of golf with our neighbor & friend Bob where they could talk and laugh. Alan and Gayle took up bowling and were considering joining a league. They were invited to Christmas Eve service in 2015 at Wellspring UMC and after that Alan decided to start going to church where felt the welcome of the parishioners and heard the word of God by both Andy and Pastor Jeff.

They both had the good fortune to travel over the recent years to Alaska, Catalina Island, The Grand Canyon, Sedona, Big Bend, Michigan, Niagara Falls, and finally Kauai, where they witnessed the remnants of their first hurricane.

Alan aka "Ziggy" will always be remembered for loving to tell a joke. He could tell a good one, too and not always PG rated! He was quite the jokester and loved to make people laugh. He was kind hearted and a good listener. If co-workers, friends or even strangers had a problem, Alan would always make time to listen.

Alan loved his family and always put them first and foremost. He is survived by his with wife of 38 years, Gayle, daughter Amanda, and their loyal and loving fur babies, Boomer and Kona.

Though his 63 years were short, they were well lived and he was well loved. Alan will be missed beyond words, but with the hope and Gods Glory we will be together again!

Until we see each other again in God's graces our eternal love ~ Your Galan and Mondo