Garrett Hobert Brader III

Garrett Hobert Brader III., a loving husband and devoted father, passed away peacefully on April 20, 2021 in Orange California, at age 72 years old. Garrett (Gary) was born on June 14, 1948 on Flag Day in Santa Ana California, to Garrett Hobert Brader Jr. (Hoby) and Amanda Brader (née Bruns).

After graduating from Orange High School in Orange California, he joined the U. S. Marine Corps. to fight for his country in Vietnam. While working as a Distribution Driver (“driving the beer truck”, he’d say) for Straub Distributing for close to 20 years, he acquired an expert knowledge of the whereabouts of Orange County. This would prove useful later when his still-learning-to-drive children got lost and called Dad for directions home.

Later he became a state certified water treatment engineer for the California Institute of Environmental Technologies, where he also taught classes in math specifically for water treatment. One of his biggest passions was gold prospecting which he learned from his father (Hoby). Being an “outdoors & nature guy”, his prospecting took him to many interesting places including Alaska, all over California, and his favorite local deserts. In recent years he joined the Route 66 Gold Miners Prospecting Club where he attended meetings with many other interesting prospectors who shared prospecting stories and their discoveries.

He was a history buff who loved reading and researching his favorite historical topics, including the Civil War, World War II and especially ancient history. Gary appreciated television programs like the West Wing and the Big Bang Theory because of the level of detailed research and accuracy, plus he enjoyed Sheldon’s humor.

Gary studied the earth and enjoyed finding things out. One of his preferred tools he used for prospecting was his dowsing rods. The same rods his dad would use to locate water pipes in the ground, he would use for locating gold and other precious metals. He even built his own “Gizmo Box” for improving and fine tuning the rods’ ability to find minerals and metals. He was also very social and loved sharing stories with everyone.

Top priority to him was his family, of whom he was very protective and proud of their endeavors. He trained the family’s two dogs (who adored him) and could fix anything around the house. Gary could be silly sometimes but had an open mind and a generous heart. Many family sayings came from favorite movie and tv show quotes that he would love to repeat often. He is and will always be greatly missed.

Surviving family members include his wife Kathy (née Carrasco), with whom he celebrated 45 years of marriage, and had 2 children Tiffany Michelle Brader and Garrett Hobert Brader IV.

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