WESTBROOK — Eben G. Emerson Jr., 80, of Portland, passed away on Aug. 29, at Springbrook Center after a hard-fought battle with multiple myeloma and kidney failure.

Eben was born Jan. 12, 1932, a son of the late Eben G. Emerson Sr. and Florence (Haines) Emerson.

Eben married Janice Davis, Oct. 12, 1956, in Las Vegas, Nev. He always liked to tell the story that they were married after three dates. They lived in Southern California for 15 years, where their children, Jeffrey Alan and Debra Anne were born.

Eben graduated from Deering High School in 1950, and joined the U.S. Navy following graduation. He proudly served from 1950 to 1954. Eben was a Tin Can Sailor, serving on two different destroyers; the USS Robert A. Owens DD827, and the USS Owen DD536.

He often tells the story of being transferred from the Robert A. Owens to the Owen at sea via basket chair because the Owen needed a radar man. He was proud to be a radar man whether directing planes back to their ships or in support of cruisers off the coast of North Korea. He was also proud of the fact that he had actually sailed around the world.

In 1955, Eben ventured to California, where he worked for McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) in the missiles and space engineering department. He was always proud that he had been a part of the space program in its early days having worked on the manned orbiting workshop, all three phases of the Thor Missile and the Nike, Honest John and Ding Dong Missiles.

He completed his working days at BIW in the engineering department working in the DDG program. He started out in Destroyers in 1950, and finished with Destroyers with his retirement in 1993.

Eben was a member of Saco Masonic Lodge 9 of Saco. He was raised to the degree of a Master Mason on June 30, 1966, in Belmont Shore Masonic Lodge, Long Beach, Calif., where he served as Tyler in 1967. He became member of Kora Shrine in 1983, and was also an active member of the Kora Shrine Klowns.

Eben, an only child, married Jan and became part of a very large extended family. There was a new set of parents, four sisters and two brothers which grew as his new siblings married. There were also nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins as the whole Davis clan grew. There have been times to share laughs, times to shed tears and always times for those precious HUGS. Eben had many titles, he was Dad, Grampy, PopPop, Uncle EM, Em, EBBA the Clown and high school classmates knew him as Grant.

He is survived by wife, Janice; son, Jeffrey (Carol) Emerson; daughter, Debra (Carl) Marsano; grandchildren, Nicholas and Alden Davis Emerson, Adam and Elizabeth Marsano, Robert and Daniel Jackson; great-grandchildren, Aila and Isabella Emerson; and their mom, Fatameh Aadelvand.

A special thank-you to everyone who has helped us through this long journey. The family is most grateful for everything that you have done.

To sign a guestbook and share memories, go to the obituary page at www.athutchins.com.