Damien Patrick DeKime

Damien Patrick DeKime (also known as Pat to his friends and ‘Dame’ to his brothers) passed away suddenly at the age of 71. Born in 1953 in South Bend, Indiana, he was the first son of George S. DeKime of Utica, New York, and Marilyn Rose McGraw DeKime of Evansville, Indiana. A long-time resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, he passed in the city he loved. He leaves behind a son in the Tampa Bay area, Stephan Guilmino, along with his wife Rebeca, his three grandchildren, Isaiah, Isaac, Noah, and his fourth grandson, Elijah, having predeceased him in 1999. Also left behind are his three brothers, Timothy DeKime of Manalapan, New Jersey, Vincent DeKime, who resides in London, England and Christopher DeKime, in Krakow, Poland. Left behind with Timothy are his wife, Karen, Pat’s sister-in-law, and his two nephews, David and Daniel, also of Manalapan, New Jersey. Many cousins and relatives also survive him from both the DeKime and McGraw family sides. In addition, a lifetime of friends and acquaintances in New Orleans and St. Petersburg, Florida, are also grieving for this loss, not to mention a small army of loyal Facebook followers with whom Pat loved to joke, poke, entertain and exchange views.

A peripatetic family, The DeKimes made homes in South Bend, Indiana, Chicago, Illinois, San Juan, Puerto Rico, New Orleans, Louisiana and Huntington, New York. This exposure to so many places and cultures provided Damien with an open mind and welcoming spirit as well as a love of travel. Not only was he well traveled in the United States, he also visited abroad in his younger days in London, England, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and several cities in Spain and Morocco as well.

In his lifetime, Damien had a wide variety of professional experiences. He owned two tile and wallpaper stores at one time, enjoyed roles in restaurants in both the front and back of the house; he worked in the men’s clothing department in a large New York City department store as well as a small boutique clothing shop in Huntington, NY. He was also proud of the many buildings he helped construct scattered throughout the eastern United States. He was a stickler for detail and took pride in the thoroughness with which he accomplished his work. He wasn’t a jack-of-all-trades, rather, he might have been better described as a master-of-all-trades. He was blessed with a mind that, when he saw an object or machine, he could quickly ascertain how it operated and what made it tick. This explained his lifelong love of cars as well. He brought back to life a vintage Triumph TR-3 from virtual scrap to showroom condition. In his later years he was very knowledgeable about and unashamedly interested in computers and tech in a geeky kind of way. On the side, he was everyone’s handyman. He could lay tile, pour cement, brick a wall, paint a house, pull out an enormous tree and bring a garden to life. During his lifetime he was a lover of music and an accomplished drummer having played with many bands including one called Southwind, that traveled up and down the United States. With all of these accomplishments, everyone that was close to Pat was aware of his struggles with life’s challenges. With incredible resilience, he bounced back time after time after time. What allowed him to do so was an eternal optimism and love of life. A life which was cut short at the age of 71.

A service to celebrate his life will be scheduled by his family and held in Florida at a future date.