His service to his country during WWII was pretty important to him. We buried him in his uniform, which fit again after the radiation treatments for his lung cancer.
Dad was a Telephone Pioneer. They gave him a lifetime membership, but it didn't last long enough to suit me.
In North Carolina, when you hit age 70, you get a permanent fishing license. Permanent is forever, so just before they closed the coffin, I put it in his pocket. I think he'd like that, because he liked to go fishing.
When my father's father (Nils Reinert Nilsen aka Reinert Nils Nelson) retired from Modell's Sporting Goods store, the Modell Family gave him a gold watch (made by Longines) as a retirement present on 8-11-55. It almost sounds like a cliche--getting a gold watch at retirement--but I found the watch almost fifty years later among my father's effects, wound it, and it still works.