Nathaniel Symonds Obituary

Nathaniel Symonds
April 27, 1934 - October 19, 2024
It is with great sadness that we announce that Nathaniel (Mike) Symonds passed away on October 19 with his wife of 62 years by his side. Mike was born on April 27, 1934 in Chicago, Illinois to Nathaniel Millberry Symonds and Johnetta Marshall Symonds.
Mike grew up in Hinsdale Illinois attending school at Monroe Elementary School where he wrote the school song. He graduated from Hinsdale Township High School in 1952. After graduating from high school he went on to attend college at Stanford University, Southern Cal and Grinell. During his summer breaks from college he worked for The Santa Fe Railroad in Needles California which sparked his life long interest in trains. In 1957 he was drafted into the U. S. Army and was stationed for a year in Ankara, Turkey. After discharge from the Army in 1959 he went to work in Chicago for Automatic Electric Company in their sales department and worked for them for 10 years. He met his future wife, Joan, there and they were married October 6, 1962. He was transferred to the New York office and they lived in Florham Park, NJ for 2 1/2 years where son, Mike, Jr. and son, Jonathan were born. Then he was transferred to the Minneapolis office where they lived in Wayzata and daughter, Jennifer was born. In 1969 he moved the family to Brewster, Washington to learn how to raise apples and stayed until 2012. He was always interested in travel especially on trains and this interest led to opening Riverbend Travel Service which he and Joan operated for many years. While in Brewster, Mike was active in Kiwanis and the Chamber of Commerce as well as being an active member of Hope Lutheran Church where he served as an elder for many years.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Nathaniel Millberry Symonds and Johnetta Lorraine Marshall Symonds and his sister, Eleanor Symonds Deng. Survivors include wife, Joan Eggleston Symonds, son, Nathaniel (Mike) (Mary) Symonds, son, Jonathan (Julie) Symonds, daughter, Jennifer Symonds (Paul) Montgomery, grandchildren, Nate (Noelle) Symonds, Hannah (Brett) Schneider, Bethany Symonds, Rachel (Austin) Sandland, Andrew
Montgomery and greatgrands, Brock Schneider, Adeline Rose Symonds and Sophie Louise Sandland. A celebration of life service will be held at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Wenatchee on November 9 at 1 p.m., with a reception afterward.