Obituary of Michael John Oliver

Pensacola, Florida — Michael John Oliver, 73, gained his angel wings on August 22, 2017 at his home following a brief illness. He leaves behind his wife of fifty-three years, Mary (Hines) Oliver; his children: Michael (Christina Freel) Oliver, Jr. of Puyallup, Washington, Brenda (Michael) Tuttle of Granger, Indiana, Corrina (Greg) Fergusson of Pensacola, Florida, and Angela (Joseph) Ferro of Reno, Nevada; twelve grandchildren; two great-grandchildren, along with a half-brother, Richard (Sue) Mackie and half-sister, Susan (Paul) Strike, both in England. Born in Redhill, Surrey, England on October 26, 1943, Michael and his parents came to the United States in 1948 and settled in the South Bend, Indiana area where he was raised. After graduating from John Adams High School in 1961, Michael married his wife, Mary Hines on February 29, 1964. Michael started working at Dodge Reliance Electric in 1969. While living in the South Bend area, Mike became a Volunteer Fireman with the Clay Township Fire Department, earning a Second-Class Firefighter Ranking and awarded Volunteer of the Year for the first year it was awarded. He was involved with little league baseball as a baseball coach and umpire, along with a Cub and Boy Scout Leader in the Scouting program. In 1983, Mike’s career moved his family to the Seattle, Washington area where he and his wife lived until his retirement in 2003. Michael was the person everyone could go to when in need. While living at the Maple Valley Washington Retirement Villa, Michael was a member of the Community Board. After retiring, Mike and Mary moved to the Pensacola, Florida area where he continued to help those in his area by volunteering at the Open Books bookstore where he led the Prison Book Project for three years. Mike enjoyed filling his time with family and friends playing cards, working with computer programming, and earlier, building trikes out of motorcycles with his son. Michael was preceded in death by his parents, Reginald and Brenda (Weldon) Oliver; his biological mother, Amy; a son, Joseph Daniel Oliver and a grandson, Anthony Henschen. A funeral service will be held on Friday, August 25, 2017 with visitation from 11:00-12:00pm and service at 12:00pm at Family-Funeral and Cremation, 7253 Plantation Road, Pensacola, FL, 32504. In lieu of flowers, the family would ask that donations be made to Covenant Care in memory of Michael John Oliver at https://choosecovenant.org/donate.