Obituaries

Michael Tucker passed away at home on January 12, 2018 at the age of 53 in Fremont, California. He valiantly fought a 9 month battle with cancer.

Mike was preceded in death by his father, Paul. Mike is survived by his devoted wife Deborah and son Joshua; parents Diane and Tom Hart; sister Karyn Patterson and her husband Jim and their sons Jimmy and Michael; mother-in-law Donna Stahulak; sister-in-law Diane Stahulak and her son Michael; and many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews in a wonderfully blended family.

Martial Arts were important in Mike’s life with disciplines as varied as Judo, Jujitsu, Tae Kwon Do, Bokendo, combat knife fighting, and Krav Maga. Although he was proud of his personal accomplishments with his Shodan and Rokudan ranks, and Sensei and Professor Titles, he took even greater pleasure in teaching, including promoting nine black belts. He honored those who had taught and sparred with him by passing on that knowledge to the next generation.

Mike’s love of American muscle machinery, craft beers, and good tequila took him on many fun adventures. He showed his red, 1967 Ford Galaxie in several Good Guys car shows. He celebrated his 40th driving a formula car on a race track, his 45th crewing on a steam locomotive through the Santa Cruz mountains, and his 50th piloting a 1942 North American SNJ-4 Texan over the Sonoma wine country. He was dedicated to the hunt for new craft beers and tequilas with his wife (part of his marriage vows). He grew up in a military family and traveled to many foreign countries and grew to love Cabo San Lucas as his favorite vacation spot, making many lifelong friends there.

Mike was President/CEO of his own company, Alpha Sciences Inc., since 1999 and had customers all over the world.

Services will be held Sunday, 1/21/18, 4pm at Fremont Memorial Chapel 3723 Peralta Blvd., Fremont; Reception to follow. If you wish to donate to a cause instead of sending flowers, he had a special place in his heart for the CHP 11-99 Foundation (https://chp11-99.org/) and was a member for many years. Or you can donate to pancreatic cancer research at https://www.pancan.org/.