Fritz August Nachant

Fritz August Nachant

Male 1917 - 2008  (91 years)

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  • Name Fritz August Nachant 
    Born 3 Jun 1917  San Diego, San Diego County, California, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died 2 Oct 2008  San Diego, San Diego County, California, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I4194  Rossen Genealogy
    Last Modified 29 Aug 2017 

    Father August Nachant,   b. 19 Apr 1882,   d. 14 Nov 1978, San Diego, San Diego County, California, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 96 years) 
    Relationship Birth 
    Mother Elsie Rae Lohman,   b. 17 Aug 1888, Chatham, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Relationship Birth 
    Family ID F1451  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Elise Veturia Quitsow,   b. 19 Mar 1920, Arizona, USA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 4 Feb 1974, San Diego, San Diego County, California, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 53 years) 
    Children 
     1. Susan Louise Nachant,   b. 23 Apr 1942, San Diego, San Diego County, California, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [Birth]
    +2. Sarah Elise Nachant,   b. 4 Jun 1944, San Diego, San Diego County, California, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [Birth]
    +3. John Paul Nachant,   b. 20 Sep 1947, San Diego, San Diego County, California, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [Birth]
    Last Modified 11 Aug 2017 
    Family ID F1449  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 2 Anna Soldner,   b. 22 Jan 1932, Munich, Germany Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 20 Jun 2012  (Age 80 years) 
    Married 22 Mar 1980 
    Last Modified 11 Aug 2017 
    Family ID F1450  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Photos
    Fritz August Nachant
    Fritz August Nachant
    Portrait
    Fritz August Nachant
    Fritz August Nachant
    Portrait from around 1938

    Documents
    August Nachant and his wife Elsie Rae (nee Lohman), their son Frederick P Nachant and Elsie´s parents
    August Nachant and his wife Elsie Rae (nee Lohman), their son Frederick P Nachant and Elsie´s parents
    Census 1920
    They live in San Diego. August is working as a baker in a bakery on own account. Both Elsie and her father are listed as artists.


  • Notes 
    • OBITUARY
      Fritz Nachant; self-made man was pilot, hunter and entrepreneur

      By Blanca Gonzalez
      UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

      October 17, 2008

      Fritz Nachant was about 8 years old when he traded in his violin for a hunting rifle.
      His mother had bought the instrument for him a year earlier, and although he didn't like it, he practiced and played it for her.
      But his love of the outdoors prompted him to swap his violin for a rifle at a pawnshop. Over the years he became an avid hunter, taking trips to Alaska, Siberia, Panama and Africa and counting Chuck Yeager and Gen. Jimmy Doolittle among his hunting buddies.
      He helped start the Safari Club in Los Angeles in 1971. The L.A.-based group eventually became Safari Club International, a worldwide group that promotes hunters' rights and wildlife conservation.
      A self-made man who didn't graduate high school, Mr. Nachant ran a successful contracting business for more than 30 years. He credited the youth organization DeMolay for putting him on the track to success.
      Mr. Nachant died of heart failure Oct. 2 at San Diego Hospice. He was 91.
      His daughter, Susan Lindsay, said her father was an entrepreneur from an early age, delivering newspapers on his bicycle when he was 6. By the time he was 14, he was selling newspapers to the Navy ships in the San Diego harbor, rowing his boat from one ship to the next.
      He was a teenager when his mother encouraged him to join DeMolay. “He said he was a smart-alecky kid making money selling newspapers so he decided to look into it,” Lindsay said. “He felt he didn't have direction, but he knew he wanted to do something with his life. He said the values he learned (from DeMolay) helped form his success.”
      As an adult, he became a Mason and a Shriner and enjoyed marching in parades and raising money for the Shriners Hospitals for Children.
      In the mid-1940s, he began working in construction. He eventually started his own business after earning his general contractor's license and built many service stations and auto repair shops in the region, Lindsay said.
      Early in his career, Mr. Nachant was advised by a friend to take up golf if he wanted to move ahead in business so he took his first golf lesson. After the lesson he went to nearby Gillespie Field to visit a friend who worked at the airport.
      The friend told him he should learn to fly instead of learning golf and took him for a plane ride. “He started flying lessons and never picked up the golf clubs again,” his daughter said.
      Mr. Nachant earned his pilot's license in the late 1950s and became an active member of the San Diego Sheriff's Search and Rescue Aero Squadron, volunteering to fly his aircraft to search for lost hikers and downed planes.
      He stopped flying in the late 1970s but he made one last flight as a co-pilot when he flew to the North Pole at age 80.
      Fritz August Nachant was born June 3, 1917, in San Diego to August and Elsie Nachant. He lived in the Los Angeles area for a time but spent most of his life in San Diego.
      He worked for Consolidated Aircraft and became a foreman of the B-24 outer wing department before going into construction. He married the former Elise “Dede” Quitsow of San Diego in 1940. The couple had three children. She died in 1974. Mr. Nachant married Anna DeSimone in 1980.
      He was a longtime supporter of the Salvation Army and the conservation group Ducks Unlimited.
      Mr. Nachant is survived by his wife, Anna of San Diego, his children, Susan Lindsay of La Mesa, Sally Reynolds of La Mesa and Paul Nachant of San Diego; stepchildren, Claudia DeSimone of San Diego, Adrianna Issakov of La Jolla and Vanda Scates of Santee; eight grandchildren; five step-grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
      A celebration of life is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at the Musicians Hall, 1717 Morena Blvd., San Diego.
      The family suggests donations to San Diego Hospice, 4311 Third Ave., San Diego, CA, 92103.