Gary Diepenhorst and Don Webster interview
Don Webster (left) and Gary Diepenhorst (right)
Name/Title
Gary Diepenhorst and Don Webster interviewEntry/Object ID
2024.41.223Scope and Content
Gary Diepenhorst and Don Webster interviewed at the Diepenhorst Fisheries at 6313 Gleason Road (NW corner of Gleason Road and 63rd) by Judy Mauger with occasional comments by Peggy Boyce. Gary Diepenhorst recounted stories of his childhood, his brother Dave, school days, his mother making fish nets by hand, how the family's Spear Street net barn later became Burr Tillstrom's house, the difficulties of the commercial fishing business. Gary attended Gibson school and Saugatuck High School. He always wanted to be a fisherman like his father. At 13 years old he began working for Bob Peel, fishing for chubs or gill netting perch off the beach. After high school Gary joined the Navy and served on a submarine demolition team. He claimed to be one of the first frogmen of Vietnam and later became a hardhat diver, diving for offshore rigs. Don Webster, Peggy Boyce's brother, recalled that Saugatuck was a good place to grow up, with wild parties in the summer, but working on the Webster family farm on Silver Lake was not for him so he left town in 1951 to enlisted in Korean war. Don mentioned that the Sand Bar was called the Pool Room, rollerskating at/sneaking into at the Pavilion, his school-age crush on Pinky Funk, his Air Force service in Alaska and the Aleutian islands as part of a fighter jet interceptor squadron, The interview concluded with a peek into Gary's smokehouse.Collection
1845 Fishing, commercial, Education and schools, Love and Romance, Military, wars and veterans, ChildhoodCataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2024.41Acquisition Method
Found in CollectionCredit Line
To view this recording, scroll down to the bottom of this entry and click the blue web link. This video was created by Saugatuck-Douglas History Center volunteers or was donated to the Center in a good faith effort to preserve local history. If you feel this content should not be available to the public — or have additional information that will add context to this interview — please contact the SDHC Archives at archives@mysdhistory.org.Oral History Details
Interviewee
Diepenhorst, Gary Lee 1940-2024Interviewer
Mauger, Judith Morris "Judy" 1938-2016, Boyce, Peggy (Webster) 1932-2021Interview Date
Sep 1, 2004Length of Interview
75Location
Oral History DVD/CDs
AWS/VidArch SSD/DVD originals drawer