Another Fair Haven dad, husband, neighbor and friend has passed away.

Longtime Fair Havenite and Korean War veteran Adolph S. “Rudy”  Garcia, known to many as a loving husband and father, world traveler and kind friend, “passed gracefully and peacefully from this Earth” on Oct. 20, his family said. He was 88.

A memorial service is set for 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursday at Thompson Memorial Home in Red Bank. A funeral will follow on Friday at 10:30 a.m. at the funeral home, followed by entombment at Holmdel Cemetery.

Facebook was flooded with messages of condolence from Fair Haven friends of Rudy’s children Steve, Diane and Anita and the family’s Park Road neighbors.

Former neighbor and family friend Cathy Mazza Becker encapsulated the sentiments with her remembrance that “our families have such wonderful memories of our childhood on Park Road! Both your mother and father were such wonderful people and I will always remember them dearly!”

Many of these former neighbors recounted happy childhood memories on Park — memories of families that became family in a neighborhood.

Rudy “was a Fair Haven resident for many years, who lived on Park Road,” said longtime Fair Havenite Bill Burlew, mentioning Rudy’s wife, Mary Rose, who passed away “about 12 years ago,” and the three children. “We will never forget them,” he concluded.

And they, like many longtime Fair Havenites with happy childhood memories from “the neighborhood,” will never forget either.

Rudy’s obituary, prepared by his family, hones in on his zest for life, love of family, travel, a good joke, a dry martini and a good, infectious laugh “that drew people to him like a magnet.” Loving, hard-working and generous is how he was remembered. “He drew people to him like a magnet,” he obituary said. “He will be desperately missed.”

The obituary added ...

A Red Bank resident at the time of his death, Rudy was born in 1931 in San Jose, California.

His mother, widowed young, worked hard and raised Rudy and his two older brothers to all be fine, decent men. He served in the Korean War and was honorably discharged as a Sgt First Class in the Army. After fighting in Korea, he completed his service in Fort Monmouth, NJ, where he met the love of his life, a beautiful green eyed secretary named Mary Rose Maffeo in October, 1953.  They married in 1954.

“They had three children, worked hard, traveled the world and loved each other deeply until Mary Rose died in 2008. Rudy never stopped loving and missing her.”   

Rudy worked many years for Bendix, Quindar Electronics and Rockwell/Alcatel and had a long, successful career as an electrical engineer and eastern regional manager, retiring from Rockwell Industries in 2006.

He is survived by: his three loving children, Diane (and Harry) Dangler, Stephen Garcia and Anita Rowe; his two beloved grandchildren, John Jr. (Jack) and Katelin (Katie) Rowe; and his older brother Leonard, of California. 

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations in Rudy’s name be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Pl, Memphis, TN 38105-9959. St. Jude was his patron saint and a cause very close to his heart.