Michael Dennis Melendy (“Mike”), a proud veteran of the United States Navy and member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe; a descendent of Me’dildin and Tsewenaldin Villages. Mike was a native of Humboldt County, born at St. Joseph Hospital on November 21, 1939. Following a long battle with cancer, he passed away on Thursday May 1, at his beloved home on the hill in Monmouth, Oregon in the presence of his wife and partner of 66 years, Darline, and his son Jim.
Mike was the second of nine children born to Ward Tinker Melendy and Norene Marshall Latham. Mike grew up and attended schools in Arcata, Eureka and Gold Beach, Oregon. The family lived in a large two-story home (since replaced by the HSU Center Arts building) and attended College Elementary School directly across the street. The neighborhood below Founders Hall at Humboldt was a magical place to grow up, Mike and siblings were close neighbors with legendary HSU names: Fred Telonicher, Homer Balabanis, Pop Jenkins, and Myrtle McKittrick. With Mike there was never a dull moment, he was always “full of it”, talking certain gullible siblings into things like crawling under wooden sidewalks to retrieve dropped coins; sneaking out of the old two-story house and going up to lay on the rim of Humboldt Bowl to watch our cousin Jr. Marshall quarterback for the Lumberjacks; building a fire in the kitchen floor when Uncle Joe was baby-sitting and climbing out the window at an old Victorian at 13th and J, necessitating rescue by the Eureka Fire Department.
Mike moved to and entered high school in Gold Beach, Oregon where his father was an education administrator. At Gold Beach High, he met his partner for life, Darline Crook. Following high school graduation and enlistment in the United States Navy Mike and Darline married. During his enlistment, they made their home in Maryland. Following his discharge, they returned to Oregon, eventually making their home on a hill just outside of Monmouth, Oregon where they raised and were proud parents of James and Jeffrey…