Nicholas A. Dibs

Nicholas A. Dibs, age 81, of Grants Pass, died Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at Three Rivers Medical Center.

Services have been held with interment at Eagle Point National Cemetery. Hull & Hull Funeral Directors are in charge of arrangements.

Remembrances may be made to The Brees Foundation for Breast Cancer Research, www.breesonline.com.

Nicholas was born November 4, 1931 in Brooklyn, New York to Arthur N. & Alexandria A. Dibs. Nick’s earliest memories include being present at his grandfather’s funeral in the 1930s, as well as making a trip to New York in 1948 for the summer with his mother to see his aunts.

Nick graduated from Excelsior High School in Norwalk, California in 1951. In 1953 he married Samantha Moffitt and they later divorced. He served two years in the National Guard as a corporal, and from age 21 to 23 served in the Army infantry during the Korean War (June ’53 to ’55) in Alaska. Nick served two more years as a sergeant in the National Guard while working in his fathers’ furniture store, Dibs Furniture, located at 3125 E Anaheim Street in Long Beach, where they featured Maple furniture. Nick’s father Arthur taught him how to fly. Arthur Sr. owned a flight school at Floyd Bennet Field in New York City, and used to take Nick for flights at night over the city. Nick’s father owned an Aeronca C3 plane at the time, and Nick later owned a Piper Tri-Pacer and an ERCO Ercoupe.

Nick also flew with his favorite uncle, Eddie, who was a POW during World War II for 11 months after being shot down over Hungary in a B17 bomber. Nick also served for 10 years in the Civil Air Patrol. On one occasion, as a spotter, he located the wreckage of a civilian plane flown by General Hunteinger, the former commander at Vandenburg Air Force Base, and his wife after they crashed north of Santa Paula, California. Nick’s brother, Arthur served in the Marines and his brother, George served in the Coast Guard.

In 1955 Nick enrolled in barber college and for 12 years worked in Long Beach, California as a barber, later in Anaheim. He was a furniture representative for three years. His Uncle Joe and brother Art went in together to buy a furniture store in Westminster, California (The original log cabin building still exists and later became a gun shop).

Nick worked for the government as a mechanic at the Seal Beach Weapon Station, for drug enforcement units in Los Angeles, at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, and finally at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, where he retired in 1994. He moved to Grants Pass, Oregon that same year.

His many hobbies included dancing at Eagles Club, G Street Clubs, and with the Grants Pass Dance Club at the Fairgrounds; concerts in the park; hiking and walking; rafting; rally/parades with the VW Club; maintaining and riding his motorcycle; automobile mechanics; dinners and dancing with friends; fixing up his ‘ranch house’ and bar; and flying airplanes.

Survivors include a son, Nicholas E. Dibs of Garden Grove, California; a daughter, Cynthia E. Walters of Bandon, Oregon; a grandson, Jeffery Michael Walters of Bandon, Oregon.

He was preceded in death by his parents and two brothers, Arthur Dibs and George Dibs.