Chris Silvey was born on July 26, 1942 in Hayward California to Alice and Lester Silvey. He grew up in Hayward and attended All Saints Elementary and Middle School and then Hayward High School where he was president of the Future Farmers of America (FFA). With the FFA he raised and sold his own cattle. Chris also loved tinkering with cars and grew up with the dream of becoming an automotive mechanic. When he graduated from high school, he enlisted in the Marines and spent his service as a morse code translator in Turkey. He listened to morse code to find Russian Submarines. After his time in Turkey, he served the remainder of his time in the Marines in East Germany.
     After his service in the Marines, Chris became an apprentice to learn how to be an automotive mechanic and entered the Automotive Mechanics Union upon graduation. He spent most of his professional career with Lucky's Grocery Stores working for the Lucky's Distribution Plant in Vacaville, California.
     He met his wife, Jackie, through mutual high school friends and married her on November 21, 1964 in Reno, Nevada. They were married for over 56 years. Chris and Jackie have a daughter, Leslie, and a son, Jeffrey. He is the grandfather of Sophia Catherine and Piper.  Chris spent his life as an advocate for children with autism due to his Sophia being diagnosed with the disorder at age 2 and a half.
     Upon retirement, Chris began studying the sport of golf and began training as a cyclist. He rode many 100 and 50 mile rides throughout his later years. Chris took both sports seriously studying and practicing both with great spirit and determination. During his retirement, Chris became a tutor for the Adult Literacy Program helping many adults learn to read and write proficiently. He also spent numerous hours in his daughter's elementary school classes helping struggling students to read. His favorite past time besides cycling and golf was to read to his daughter's students. He loved the interaction and crazy questions the students would come up with as he was reading to them. However, his utmost favorite pastime was giving bedspread burrito roles to his granddaughter.
     Chris was also very spiritual and spent time as a Catholic, Lutheran, and Presbyterian. He continued his search for spiritual wisdom at the Moreno Valley Episcopal Church. He may not have committed to a specific religion, but he never lost his faith in God. Chris loved being a part of his bike club, The Redlands Water Bottle Transit Company and considered the members as his second family.
     Chris Silvey's life will be celebrated with a live zoom telecast of his burial at the Riverside National Cemetery at 9:30am on Monday, April 5th. The burial is for the immediate family. However, everyone is welcome to attend his memorial service at Miller Jones Morturary Chapel in Moreno Valley at 11:30am. Due to Covid-19, the service will be live streamed on zoom for anyone who would like to participate from home. The live stream zoom service will allow family and friends to speak about Chris if they wish to do so. His daughter is working on a short film about Chris for the memorial and would like to hear from anyone and everyone who has pictures and stories about him. You can download your pictures and videos here on this site.