Memorial for Sam Gaydeski announced

DNR employee killed in accident

A Celebration of Life for Sam Gaydeski is being held on Saturday, Feb. 19 beginning at 2 p.m. at the 110 Business Park Roundhouse off LaPush Road.

Gaydeski, 50, was killed, likely by accident, on Monday, Feb. 14 while operating a brush cutter as a state Department of Natural Resources employee cutting weeds along a DNR forest road. He was working in west Jefferson County in the Clearwater area.

An investigation of the accident is being held by the DNR and by the state Department of Labor and Industries.

Gaydeski is survived by his wife, Deborah Hurn Gaydeski, and three children Marin, Mason and Morgan Gaydeski. 

His brother-in-law Todd Horton, the husband of his wife’s sister Deann Hurn, was killed in a logging accident in October 2010.

He was a nephew of former Clallam County Commissioner Lawrence Gaydeski. The family settled a homestead north of Forks in the early 20th century, and the road leading to the land is named after the family.

In the past, Gaydeski operated the Sappho Junction Store, located at the junction of Highway 101 and SR 113. He was an active member of the Forks Lion’s Club, noted as a loving family man and a car enthusiast who once drove a Corvette and later a Detroit muscle car.