Gary John McNamara

January 26, 1943 - October 31, 2021

Gary John McNamara was the beloved husband to Carol Ann McNamara and father to three beautiful daughters, Sarah Kathleen McNamara , and identical twins Kati "Katherine" McNamara, and Kari "Emily" Steele. He was also a devoted grandfather to Kaden and Emma Steele, and loved his son-in-law Clint Steele, referencing him as the son he never had.

Gary was born in Hollywood, California on January, 26, 1943. He lived in Burbank, California with his father Verne John McNamara (deceased), mother Elma Marjorie Judd ("Jo")(deceased) and older brother, Steven McNamara (deceased).

Gary grew up around the corner from world famous movie studios where his father worked on Columbia Picture and Disney movie sets as a miniature maker, creating special effects and set designs for the moving arts, before passing at the young age of 45 years old in 1953, when Gary was only 10 years old.

Gary would share stories about his memories of his father bringing home pyrotechnic explosives from the sets for his sons to experiment with. Turning 4th of July into his favorite holiday.

One of Gary's early highlights when his father was alive allowed him to play a role in a few films, like the zany cult classic , and only Dr. Seuss Movie Musical, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.

His mother was a classic homemaker of the 50's until she suddenly lost her husband. She was required to take on full time job in her 30's for the first time building motherboards for the electronics industry. She quickly moved into a managerial position and was overseeing a team for Litton Industries for over 35+ years. His mother was a devout Latter Day Saint, and raised her sons to be kind, loving and compassionate. Gary was dedicated to caring for his mother until she passed in 2003.

Gary attended Burbank High school and graduated in 1961. He went on to Brigham Young University in Utah, studying for a year before becoming home sick. He transferred over to Cal State, Los Angles, CA with a Bachelors of Science in electrical and microwave engineering. He graduated college in 1966.

In his early career he was recruited by Ford Motor Company to work as an Electrical Engineer in the Newport beach facility. Four years later he was recruited by Ward Davis out of Pasadena, CA and worked there for a few of years before he began a 50+ year career as a successful direct sales engineer for Weinschel Engineering out of Gaithersburg, MA and spent the last 25 years running his own business as a subject matter expert in his industry of microwave engineering.

Gary also received his real estate license and sold homes on the weekend for a couple of years. He decided to look at changing his career path at one point, and did three years of law school before he realized he had a passion for electronics and decided to dedicate and advance his sales engineering career.

In Gary's younger age he always gravitated towards electronics and was curious and interested in how things worked. His mother would share stories about how he took apart her radio before he was 10 years old and put it back together. He had an innate ability to understand how to engineer, and turned this life long passion into a career.

He would share childhood stories about playing with the neighborhood kids driving homemade go carts down the streets, creating mischief in his garage and trying not to get in trouble with his brother.

In 1969 at the age of 26, Gary met a young, beautiful and free spirited woman Carol Bissner from Pasadena, CA the daughter of Harold and Lucille Bissner (deceased). They worked at Ward Davis and Carol refused to date him because they were colleagues. A year later Carol moved on to work at American Express and immediately Gary asked Carol out on a date.

Their first date was at the famous Trader Vic's in Beverly Hills, CA. Their second date Gary was a gentleman and asked Carols father permission to go on a sailing trip to Catalina Island, CA. Carol quickly realized Gary had never sailed a boat when she saw him reading a manual on sailing, when they were half way to the Island. One of his favorite songs was "26 miles (Santa Catalina)", 1958. Four years later they married on July 28th, 1973. A year later they had their first daughter Sarah "Sera Mac" Kathleen McNamara (1974) in Burbank, CA. Two years later they bought land in Malibu, CA in 1976 in the Malibu Park area. They moved there in 1977 to build their dream home and two years later had identical twin daughters Katherine "Kati Mac" Elizabeth McNamara and Emily "Kari" Ann Steele in 1978.

Sadly, in 2018 the Woosley Fire took their family home . Gary and Carol moved to Ventura County, CA temporarily as they planned to rebuild their family home..They were in the final process of obtaining the building permits when Gary unfortunately passed away. His dream was to move back to Mailbu so he could feel the ocean breeze, hear the breaking waves and be surrounded by the natural habitat.

Gary was a very curious and lively person who was eager to learn all about life and beyond. He had a passion for all things in the universe as an amateur astronomer. He was a trained ham radio operator and loved doing Morris Code. He loved the beach, hiking, camping, bird watching, sailing, cars, reading, amusement parks, sports, food, animals, tinkering, inventing, golfing, cooking, bowling, making music, building and trips with his family.

Gary's legacy is survived by his wife, three daughters and two grandchildren. Gary was a sweet light in all of our lives, and was always about Family.

In lieu of flowers, we request you send donations to Make a Wish Foundation, American Stroke Foundation or Saint Jude's Children's Hospital.

We would love to hear stories about Gary through posting comments under his picture on this site.