Tom McCabe's Genealogy 2025

Dean Quarnstrom Obituary

Dean Martin Quarnstrom January 13, 1943 - August 13, 2021 Santa Cruz, CA

At age 78, Dean Quarnstrom passed away in the comfort of his home in Santa Cruz, California surrounded by his loving family. Dean is survived by his three children, Anne, Evan, and Nik, his wife, Jeanie, his brother, Lee, and sister-in-law, Chris. Born to Gordon and Leonore Quarnstrom in Longview, Washington, the Quarnstrom family relocated to Wilmette, Illinois in the early 1950's where Dean attended grade school and New Trier Township High School. It was as a teenager in Illinois where he would first meet the later love of his life and his future wife Jeanie Elliott. After four decades of friendship, Dean and Jeanie fell in love and married in 2000. They lived out their 20 years together in the coastal community of Santa Cruz, California.

From a young age, Dean always had a sense of adventure and an unmatched energy that earned him the nickname 'Rockets' among his peers. From his childhood attempt to run away and join a traveling circus, to embarking on numerous road trips across the country, Dean was always looking ahead to the horizon for his next adventure.

Dean's travels eventually landed him in the San Francisco Bay area, where he found a sense of community with his older brother and Prankster, Lee, among the counterculture 'hippy' subgroups who were more interested in peace and love than abetting foreign wars.

At 24 years of age, Dean found himself as a participant in the midst of the historic 1967 'Summer of Love' in San Francisco, contributing to the cultural and sexual movement that would revolutionize the country. Through his aviator sunglasses and thick mustache, Dean always joked (with a simultaneous hint of sarcasm and truth) that he was, in fact, the first hippy.

It was in San Francisco that Dean began to hone his love of photography, taking timeless images of a generation that would define the era. Having studied photography at the San Francisco Art Institute, Dean eventually passed his passion for photos down to others, becoming a photography teacher at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz County.

Film cameras accompanied Dean wherever he went, documenting trips that he took around the world to destinations such as Nepal, Morocco, Spain, Switzerland, the Grand Canyon, and Mexico, to name a few.

Dean's proudest accomplishment didn't come until 1989, when at 46 years of age, he finally became a father. His wife at the time, Gloria, gave birth to their first child, Anne. In 1992 Dean received a welcomed shock when he was informed he would have not one more kid, but two, as Gloria gave birth to twins, Evan and Nik. Dean lived for his children and always went above and beyond to assure that they were able to pursue their interests and passions in life.

Dean crammed several lifetime's worth of experiences into one, and was admirably stubborn in pursuing his own path in life, never succumbing to the status quo. He had a unique, wacky sense of humor that may have been hard to understand, but it made all those within his circle of family and friends always feel welcome and accepted.

Dean's presence will be greatly missed by his friends and family. It was always his dream to get the 'grandchildren experience', which, unfortunately he passed too soon to see through. His legacy continues through the lives of his three children who will carry his lineage, values, and passion for life into the future.