always with his shades up
the look he gave the camera
always surrounded by people
From the boy in Denver who couldn't pronounce his sister's name, to the man who built half of our memories with his own two hands. Pulled from his own words, and mine.
always with his shades up
the look he gave the camera
always surrounded by people
The youngest of five, raised by John Oliver Gaiter, a Navy man turned janitorial business owner, and Jewell Odessa Love Gaiter, who taught him to cook with love folded into every dish. He grew up watching his dad jingle his keys and shoot hoops in Bermuda shorts and tube socks after working day and night. That's where he learned what an engaged father looked like.
Headed to California for college, living on little money and less electricity with four close friends. It was also where, by his daughter's account, he played football and spun records as a DJ before an injury changed his path.
A scholarship to East Texas State University (now Texas A&M Commerce) made him a Texan. On campus, he met Pamela Kaye Bowie. They became friends first, then everything else.
Almost forty years of marriage followed: joy, growth, adventure, sadness, and suffering, all of it. They raised two children together, Gabriell and Daunte, plus a host of godchildren and adopted nieces and nephews who all called him "Uncle Mike."
He began in code enforcement and rose to Chief Building Official, helping shape the city's growth, including the development of Firewheel Town Center, Garland's first mall. He earned his Bachelor's in Public Administration at UT Dallas along the way, and retired in 2018.
Mentored by Jack Westover, he learned woodworking skills that took him from assisting on the Sixth Floor Museum's interior to building an extra room onto his family's first home, plus more shelves, counters, and furniture than anyone could count. He could build anything you asked him to, and plenty of things you didn't.
Deacon since 1988. Trainer of new deacons, Sunday School teacher, marriage ministry leader, Shepherd/Care Group leader, mentor, usher, and an occasional voice in the men's choir. His deepest study was the Book of Revelation, the relationship between the church and the bridegroom, a subject he treated like a celebration, not a burden.
He never caught a cold. He got genuinely worked up about people who "hogged all the weights at the gym." He could talk Revelation and the Fast & Furious franchise in the same breath, with equal seriousness. He was a die-hard San Diego Chargers fan. He named the family truck "Sasha." He found almost every family mishap hilarious, and never let anyone forget it.
He passed at 64. In his own words, written for the people he loved: "I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course. I am now at peace."
Written in his own voice and shared by his family, his full obituary lives on the Chamberland Funerals tribute wall, including the original tribute wall where loved ones have left their own memories.
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