Obituary Examples for a Grandfather

Grandfathers get remembered for what they taught. The obituary that works is usually the one that names the lesson, whether it was how to bait a hook or how to be quiet in a room. The examples below are invented in every detail but that one.

The short notice (about 60 words)

George Henry Lindqvist, 88, of Duluth, Minnesota, died on September 7, 2026. A Korean War veteran and a carpenter for forty years, he is survived by his wife, Marian; his children, Peter, Karen and Eric; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Services Saturday, September 13, at 1:00 p.m. at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church.

The standard obituary (about 220 words)

George Henry Lindqvist, 88, of Duluth, died on September 7, 2026, at St. Luke's, a week after finishing the bookshelf he had promised his granddaughter.

George was born in Two Harbors in 1938, served two years in Korea with the Army, and came home to learn carpentry from his father, which he practised for forty years and taught for the rest of his life to anyone who stood still long enough. He married Marian Olsen in 1961 and built her a house, then a cabin, then an addition on the house when the grandchildren started coming, then a bunkhouse at the cabin when they kept coming.

He believed in measuring twice, sanding with the grain, fishing before the sun was up and the Vikings despite everything. He kept a coffee can of screws sorted by size that nobody was allowed to touch. Every one of his eight grandchildren has a piece of furniture he made, and every one of them knows how to use a level, because he checked.

He is survived by Marian, his wife of sixty-five years; his children, Peter (Jill), Karen Lindqvist Moe (Tom) and Eric; eight grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and his brother, Carl. A service will be held Saturday, September 13, at 1:00 p.m. at Gloria Dei. The bookshelf is finished. It is level.

Written by a grandchild (about 160 words)

My grandfather, George Lindqvist, died last Sunday. He was 88. He had just finished a bookshelf for me, and I am writing this at the desk he built when I was nine.

Grandpa did not say much, so I will keep this short, the way he would. He taught all eight of us to fish, to sand with the grain, and to be quiet enough in a boat to hear it. He never once told me he was proud of me. He built me a desk, a bed, a cradle for my daughter and, last month, a bookshelf, and that was how he said it, and I heard it every time.

Saturday, 1 o'clock, Gloria Dei. Grandma asks that instead of flowers you fix something for someone who cannot. He would have liked that better.

A veteran

Master Sgt. Willie James Booker, USAF (Ret.), 86, of Montgomery, Alabama, died on August 29, 2026. Willie served twenty-four years in the Air Force, including Vietnam, and then twenty more as a custodian at Lanier High School, where he was known to every student by name and to several by the lectures he gave them about their shoes. He raised four children and helped raise eleven grandchildren, all of whom can make a bed you could bounce a quarter on. He is survived by his wife of sixty-one years, Odessa; his children; his grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren. Services with military honors Saturday at 11:00 a.m. at Hutchinson Missionary Baptist Church.

A grandfather who died after dementia

Say it plainly, then go back to before. The years before are longer, and they are the ones to keep.

Antonio "Tony" Ferrara, 90, of Wilkes-Barre, died on September 3, 2026, after several years with dementia, during which he still knew every song Sinatra ever recorded and sang them to the nurses.

Before that, Tony ran Ferrara's Bakery on South Main for forty-four years, opening at four every morning, and his grandchildren's first job was folding boxes there at nine years old for a dollar and all the cannoli they could hide. He coached CYO basketball, umpired Little League, and never in ninety years missed a Sunday dinner, which he cooked. He is survived by his children, Rose, Sal and Angela; ten grandchildren, all of whom can fold a box; and six great-grandchildren. Funeral Mass Saturday at 10:00 a.m. at St. Nicholas. The bakery will be closed Saturday, for the first time since 1982.

Two things that make a grandfather's obituary his

• The thing he taught. Name it, and name who learned it. "All eight grandchildren know how to use a level" is worth a paragraph of adjectives.
• The thing he made. A bookshelf, a bakery, a bunkhouse, a bed you could bounce a quarter on. Grandfathers are remembered by objects; put one in.