Gary Diepenhorst and Don Webster interview
Oral History
Gary Diepenhorst and Don Webster interviewed at the Diepenhorst Fisheries at 6313 Gleason Road (NW corner of Gleason Road and 63rd) by Judy Mauger with occasional comments by Peggy Boyce.
Gary Diepenhorst recounted stories of his childhood, his brother Dave, school days, his mother making fish nets by hand, how the family's Spear Street net barn later became Burr Tillstrom's house, the difficulties of the commercial fishing business. Gary attended Gibson school and Saugatuck High School. He always wanted to be a fisherman like his father. At 13 years old he began working for Bob Peel, fishing for chubs or gill netting perch off the beach. After high school Gary joined the Navy and served on a submarine demolition team. He claimed to be one of the first frogmen of Vietnam and later became a hardhat diver, diving for offshore rigs.
Don Webster, Peggy Boyce's brother, recalled that Saugatuck was a good place to grow up, with wild parties in the summer, but working on the Webster family farm on Silver Lake was not for him so he left town in 1951 to enlisted in Korean war. Don mentioned that the Sand Bar was called the Pool Room, rollerskating at/sneaking into at the Pavilion, his school-age crush on Pinky Funk, his Air Force service in Alaska and the Aleutian islands as part of a fighter jet interceptor squadron,
The interview concluded with a peek into Gary's smokehouse.

2024.41.223
1845 Fishing, commercialEducation and schoolsLove and RomanceMilitary, wars and veteransChildhood
Winthers, Sally
Diepenhorst, Gary Lee 1940-2024
Mauger, Judith Morris "Judy" 1938-2016Boyce, Peggy (Webster) 1932-2021
Sep 1, 2004
75
Oral History DVD/CDs
AWS/VidArch SSD/DVD originals drawer
Diepenhorst, Charles "Chuck" H. 1905-1976Diepenhorst, Bertha (Suiter)Diepenhorst, David A. 1931-1951Burr Tillstrom Barn/665 Spear St.Funk, Marianne “Pinkie”Webster, Don
03/19/2025
03/20/2025