Jesse Holdman

Jesse Ray Holdman entered peacefully into eternal rest on July 19, 2014 at his home in Safford. Jesse was born August 16, 1935 in Sturgis, KY to Emmett & Charley Holdman. He spent his childhood in and around Sturgis where he loved to hunt and fish. Jesse lived a life of learning and did a number if interesting things throughout his life. If he wanted to do something, he learned how to do it. His dad taught him many shills including carpentry and brick laying, pretty much anything to do with building homes. He was a farm hand, a mason and pulled wires for an electrician in his youth. As a young man he was a radar technician, a grocery store owner and an electrician. He was a college student in Electrical Engineering, Art, Pottery and Guitar. He worked as a researcher at Bell Labs and helped build oxygen tanks for NASA spaceships at Beech Aircraft. He designed and built three homes from the ground up. He received his Brokers license in Colorado and opened a real estate company. He had a pilots license and owned his own airplane in Colorado. One of the more unique and fun things he did was building and selling stilts so kids could feel a little bit bigger. Jesse loved to fish and he and Dolly spent months at a time at San Carlos Lake catching Crappie. Jesse was in the United States Air Force from 1954 to 1958, and spent two years of that time on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. He is survived by his wife Dolly, son; Vail (Kim) Holdman, daughter; Denise (Martin) Cantu, grandchildren; Sean & Adam Cantu, and Katlyn & Emmett Holdman, stepchildren; Laurie, Tharrin, Rory (Rochelle), Loren (Lisa), Clinton (Kathy), brother; Bobby (Peggy) Holdman and several step grand and great-grandchildren. A Memorial Service was held at Caldwell Funeral Chapel on July 23, 2014