Donald R. Brewer

Donald R. Brewer, a Petaluma electrical engineer with a lifelong love of the locomotive, has died. He was 84.

Brewer was smitten with trains in the late 1940s as a test engineer and instructor for General Electric. The company was undergoing a major change along with the nation’s railways, switching from steam-powered to diesel engines.

On a trip from his home base in Schenectady, N.Y., to Ashland, Ky., he met his wife of 58 years, Lois, and the couple was soon married and had three children.

Although the focus of Brewer’s work shifted over the years — from industrial machinery to geothermal facilities — he maintained an interest in trains, working on several caboose resorations and visiting historical train sites on family trips.

“We visted more old trains than I can remember,” said his wife. “Any trip we took we looked along the way. He was a real fan.”

Brewer, who had been living in a Petaluma care center for Alzheimer’s disease patients, died Oct. 1 from complications suffered in a fall. A private memorial service is planned later this month.

He was born Aug. 13, 1925 in Madison, Wisc., to Paul and Amanda Brewer. He had one brother and one sister.

Brewer tried to enlist in the military during World War II but was turned down because he had asthma.

He enrolled in the University of Wisconsin instead and graduated in 1947 with an engineering degree.

After 11 years working on trains with GE, he moved his family to Rochester, N.Y., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Janesville, Wisc.

His work on dairy and food plants, geothermal and waste water facilities and industrial machinery sent him to every state, France, Japan and Iceland.

After deciding it was time to stop shoveling snow, Brewer accepted a job with a Bay Area engineering firm and settled in Petaluma in 1974. He used vacation time to build his own hillside house in about 1978.

“I like to say it’s a Volkswagon house with a Cadillac view,” Lois Brewer said.

He was involved with the construction of San Francisco’s sewer plant before retiring in 1996.

Brewer was past president of the Northwest Pacific Railroad Historical Society and the Instrument Society of America.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by David Brewer of Kyle, Texas, Roberta Lotter of Rosamond and Randall Brewer of Bennington, Neb. He had three grandchildren.

— Paul Payne