Gary Eichin

Gary Millard Eichin

Gary Millard Eichin was suddenly called to heaven Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Duncan, Oklahoma. He was 74.

Gary was born in Denver, Colorado on May 11, 1950, to Ken and Nadene Eichin. Gary was the middle child. He had an older sister, Karen, and a younger brother, Merv. Although he was sometimes ornery, he was mostly loving and very protective of his siblings, especially his younger brother.

The Eichin family lived in Denver, Colorado until 1959 when the family moved to Arvada, Colorado. Gary had a very active childhood in Arvada and loved to play with all the neighbor kids. Those days it wasn't scary for the kids to play outside all day with little or no supervision. Gary was always there with all the kids, building go carts from scratch, turning a board into a skateboard with repurposed skates, or forging a steel rod into a carp spear. Gary was always the one that instigated innovations.

Gary was also a superior athlete. He wrestled in the winter and ran track in the spring. He loved to play football and became one of the best running backs in Colorado. He went on to play college ball at Iowa Wesleyan University for one year. Soon after that, he enlisted in the Navy because he was just about to be drafted.

Gary was very funny. He loved puns, something he acquired from his father. He and his brother could spend hours trading puns and joking around. He often talked about his years growing up in Arvada as being an idyllic childhood with a Leave It to Beaver family. He remembered how the family would sit around the dinner table telling funny stories and jokes.

He lived in Arvada until he went to Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs, Colorado where he studied photography. That is also where he met his first wife, Cindi Hogan. They were married in 1973 and lived in Arvada and Fort Collins, Colorado. Kenneth Adams Eichin was born in 1979. They divorced in 1993. For a while he had a small ranch in Bennett, Colorado and then moved to Winnie, Texas and eventually to Grand Junction, Colorado.

January 8th, 2004 Gary's son and wife gave birth to their baby girl Alyssa Ann who unfortunately passed after 4 hours. The passing of his first grand baby affected him deeply and he rededicated his life to Christ because of her. He loved his grandchildren and had 8 in total - Alyssa Ann Eichin, Branden Eichin, Zach Eichin, Aaron Rivera, Kaylee Rivera, Madi Rivera, Makenzie Puffer and Emberlee Tuttle.

Gary had many interests and accomplishments. He loved to fly fish. His dad taught him how to do that at a very young age. The family enjoyed many fun times camping in the Rockies and fishing in streams or lakes. His interest in photography continued for most of his adult life and he was quite accomplished. In 2011, he obtained his bachelor's degree in Theology from Grand Canyon University. In recent years, he really enjoyed making leather goods of various kinds for people. He made some really beautiful pieces including those that were engraved and even some with color added. He had an etsy shop full of gun holsters, wallets, journals, fishing logs, fishing equipment holsters, bible covers, knife holsters, you name it he probably could make it! His leather work was something he was very proud of. Gary was very intelligent and loved learning and even became a published author. He wrote a novel called Comes a Painted Horse, which was published in 2014.

Through a mutual friend Gary met Donna Puffer in Grand Junction, Colorado in 2008. Donna had not dated for a while and her friend kept trying to set her up and heard Gary laugh one day at work and thought that reminds me of my friend Donna. So their mutual friend did some match making and helped Gary work up the courage to reach out to Donna. They had their first date at the Starbucks in Barnes and Noble and things grew from there. They married in June of 2009. Donna lovingly referred to Gary as her Cowboy and he called her his Darling. Donna had three children William, Amanda and Kasandra from her previous marriage and Gary became a wonderful step dad to them. Gary was an amazing cook and baker and loved making his famous G taters and chocolate chip cookies for the family.

Gary and Donna moved to Duncan, Oklahoma in 2017 to be closer to Donna's mom and her daughter Kasandra. Gary had the opportunity to walk Kasandra down the aisle at her wedding in 2018 and really developed a good relationship with Kasandra's husband Christopher. He would talk to Christopher about all of his projects, guns, engineering and share his wisdom and would do the same with his other son in law Josh. Kasandra and Amanda really enjoyed having deep conversations with Gary about faith, politics and life. Gary also developed a love for walking and would walk 5 miles a day with his good friend Troy who he also would go sight seeing with and take pics of scenery. Recently this past year Gary and Donna were able to purchase their dream home and Gary finally had a shop for his leather work and many creative projects he had going on. Gary was excited to get his shop all set up and to purchase a john deere mower to take care of his land. Gary and Donna loved going on drives while living in CO and OK and would drive for hours sight seeing and taking pictures. They also baked and cooked together and enjoyed sending recipes back in forth to each other for inspiration. They shared a cat together named Thomas and ended up acquiring two more cats from Donna's Daughters, their names are Oliver and Oscar. As you can imagine having three cats would produce some fun stories and they loved sharing what the cats were up to with family. Gary and Donna also loved planning trips to Texas to visit Gary's brother Merv and his wife Traci, Wyoming to see Gary's son Ken and family and his sister Karen and her family in California. Gary and Donna were recently able to visit all of them in the past few months and we are so thankful for that.

Please join us in celebrating the life of our Cowboy, Dad, Papa, Brother and Friend.

Services will be 1:00 PM Wednesday, July 10, 2024 at Ray of Hope Church with Reverend Mike McCord and Reverend Matt Chambers officiating.

Visitation will be Tuesday from 5-7 PM at Bailes-Polk Funeral Home

He was preceded in death by his parents and granddaughter Alyssa Ann.

Survivors include his wife Donna of Duncan, Oklahoma; children Ken Eichin and wife Michelle of Cheyenne, Wyoming; William Puffer of Grand Junction, Colorado, Amanda Puffer and husband Josh Martinez of Duncan, Oklahoma and Kasandra Tuttle and husband Christpher of Fletcher, Oklahoma; grandchildren Branden Eichin, Zach Eichin, Aaron Rivera, Kaylee Rivera, Madi Rivera, Makenzie Puffer and Emberlee Tuttle; brother Merv Eichin and wife Traci of San Angelo, Texas and Sister Karen Zounek of Elk Grove, California.

Online condolences may be made at www.bailespolk.com