Maurice “Maury” Joseph Mervis was born Aug. 31, 1917, and passed away on April 20, 2010. He loved Mariposa and spent his years here working in real estate, photographing events, volunteering with SCOPE and feeding every creature that visited his property.

He joins his beloved wife, Patsy; and daughter, Connie, who passed away eight years ago. He leaves behind his sister, Shirley; daughters, Lonnie, Judy and Kathy; grandchildren, Jonathon, Devon, Brenda, Daniel, Rebecca, Adam, Alexis, Aaron and Emily; and great-grandchildren, Morgan, Joshua and Anna-Belle.

After serving in the Navy during World War II, Maury accomplished many things he dreamed of doing. He served as commodore of his yacht club in Maryland, and lived on his sail boat. When he returned to life on shore, he kept a small sail boat in the Oakland Estuary for weekend get aways. His pilot’s license is actually an antique, and he often took his daughters on joy rides, right above the ocean, combining all his loves of life.

He worked as chief engineer at Channel 5 in Washington, D.C. in the 1960s and covered the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, with the first video cameras ever used. A few years later, living in Florida, he worked at Cape Canaveral and was part of the broadcasting team that helped the world witness the first man on the moon.

Eventually after practicing real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego, he chose Mariposa as his favorite place to spend the rest of his life. The family found this lifestyle hard to believe, but Maury and Patsy took to it quickly and loved the place and the people. These “big city” folks felt right at home here in the country and would not leave again.

A service, with military honors, will be held for Maury on Friday, July 30 at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego at 3 p.m. He and Patsy will be interred there together, their prayer always being, “forever and ever amen.”