Daniel Edburn Eesley Obituary, 2018

Why this document matters

Dan Eesley’s 2018 obituary is the longest and most narratively detailed source in this archive on any single member of the Albert Robert Sr. branch — the line that runs through Charles Leonard’s brother R. Albert. It documents the second-cousin-once-removed branch of the family that ended up in San Francisco rather than in Ohio, and it provides:

• The full name and family nickname of Dan’s father (George Edburn “Bus” Eesley), filling in what the 1942 Fremont News-Messenger clipping left as just “George E.”
• The corrected spelling of Dan’s mother’s surname (Scaife, not “Scaise” as the 1942 paper had it).
• The names of Dan’s siblings — Jane (died tragically in her youth) and Richard (predeceased Dan).
• Three granddaughter names and two daughter names continuing the line.
• The Bay Area technology career arc — IBM, Amdahl, Memorex, Hewlett-Packard — that situates a cousin of Chuck’s grandfather’s generation inside the same Silicon Valley industries Chuck himself would later study and write about as an academic.

Transcription

Daniel Eesley Obituary — Daniel E. Eesley

Daniel Edburn Eesley, 86, died January 7 from Alzheimer’s disease. He was born Nov. 29, 1931, in Buffalo, New York, and grew up there and in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, Ohio. Dan graduated from the University of Michigan in 1954, where he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. After graduation, he served as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the U.S. Coast Guard. This experience left him with a deep love of nautical lore, especially lighthouses. Later in life, he helped restore the Hercules, a 1907 steam tugboat preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. After leaving the Coast Guard, Dan began work in the early 1960s in the then-nascent Bay Area technology industry, first as a systems engineer for IBM. He went on to work for Amdahl, Memorex, Hewlett-Packard and other leading tech companies of the time. He retired from HP in 2000.

A continuous resident of his beloved San Francisco since 1962, Dan was a San Francisco Symphony season ticket holder and donor for more than 30 years. Dan was also a champion of the California Academy of Sciences.

Dan was a mechanical genius. He took apart a car engine in his teens, and he continued to repair and maintain the family cars for decades. He could fix anything, and was known for his ingenious, simple solutions to everyday problems. A residential landlord in San Francisco for five decades, he did almost all the remodeling and repair on a triplex himself.

Twain Harte Lake was a favorite summer vacation place for the majority of his adult life. Dan’s long swims from the dock are a treasured family memory.

He was a longtime member of the Swedenborgian Church. He formerly attended the First Congregational Church in Berkeley and St. Luke’s Episcopal in San Francisco.

Dan was preceded in death by his parents, George Edburn “Bus” Eesley and Edla “Eddie” Scaife; his beloved sister Jane, who died tragically in her youth; and a brother, Richard.

Dan is survived by his wife of 27 years, Susan Thompson Lucas of San Francisco; daughters, Kate Grey of Las Vegas and Beth MacLean (Bruce) of Alameda; three granddaughters, Abby Griswold of San Francisco and Ellie and Grace MacLean of Alameda; stepdaughter Sarah Lucas Kass of San Francisco and her family; a cousin, Jeff Weed; his first wife, Joan Allnutt; and additional nieces, nephews and cousins.

For almost five years, Dan lived at Coventry Place San Francisco senior community. The family is extremely grateful to the staff for their compassionate care, especially Myat, Gam, Dora, and Josh. The family also thanks the teams at Pathways Health, especially Ann MacLeod, MD, of the hospice team, and Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, especially Jennifer Pawlowski, MD, for their understanding of Dan’s needs.

A service of love and remembrance will be held Saturday, Feb. 10, at 2 p.m. at the Swedenborgian Church, 2107 Lyon St. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the San Francisco Symphony or the California Academy of Sciences.

Genealogical reach

The obituary establishes the following Albert Robert Sr.-branch tree across four generations:

Albert Robert Eesley Sr. (1837–1902, Stratford-on-Avon → Toronto)
└── R. Albert Eesley Jr. (Chuck's great-great-uncle, of Fremont OH)
    └── George Edburn "Bus" Eesley (1903–1942, of Buffalo / airplane factory)
        ├── Richard Eesley (predeceased)
        ├── Jane Eesley (died tragically in her youth)
        └── Daniel Edburn "Dan" Eesley (1931–2018, San Francisco)
            ├── (m. 1: Joan Allnutt)
            │   ├── Kate Grey (of Las Vegas)
            │   │   └── Abby Griswold (of San Francisco)
            │   └── Beth (Eesley) MacLean (m. Bruce MacLean, of Alameda)
            │       ├── Ellie MacLean
            │       └── Grace MacLean
            └── (m. 2: Susan Thompson Lucas of San Francisco, 27 years)
                └── stepdaughter: Sarah Lucas Kass (of San Francisco)

The cousin Jeff Weed named as a survivor is a separate lateral branch worth following.

Editorial notes

• Date of death: 7 January 2018, age 86.
• Cause: Alzheimer’s disease.
• Memorial venue: The Swedenborgian Church of San Francisco, 2107 Lyon Street — a Bay Area landmark in the Pacific Heights / Cow Hollow district, built 1894–95.
• The phrase “the then-nascent Bay Area technology industry” in his career section accurately dates 1962 Bay Area computing: that was the founding year of Memorex, two years after IBM’s Bay Area systems-engineering hires of the late 1950s established the regional infrastructure. Dan was, in the strictest historical sense, an early Silicon Valley figure.
• The Hercules tugboat is a real historic vessel; built 1907 in Camden, NJ, in service in San Francisco Bay until 1962; designated a National Historic Landmark; now part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park fleet at Hyde Street Pier. Dan’s restoration work on her is a documented public contribution.

Provenance

Forwarded to this archive by Chuck Eesley in June 2026, alongside the 1942 obituary for Dan’s father George E. Eesley and the earlier c. 1916 obituary for Dan’s great-uncle William Eesley of College Corner. Together those three documents constitute the strongest single block of Albert Robert Sr-branch narrative this archive holds.