William Ray Van Osdol
1927 – 2024
Billy Ray from Jet – Veteran
Born on a depression farm, nine miles northeast of Jet, Oklahoma on December 22, 1927, second son of Ralph and Lovest Van Osdol, now deceased. Bill was second born behind James Earl, Iwo Jima, Okinawa survivor, and Bobby Max, both deceased. Life was tough without electricity, running water and with an outside toilet, but there was never evidence of unhappiness. At least we had food. I enjoyed school, bathrooms and showers, and time with friends. High school was a delight, football, basketball, and track. I made all-state alternate at quarterback. Woodward defeated us 6-0 which killed our chance for the first Oklahoma playoffs chosen from the fall of 1944. After the all-state game at Taft Stadium, OU coach “Snorter” Luster gave me a QB Scholarship and place me in the football dorm. Confidence was great, but the Navy set my call, and I shipped off at age 17 in 1945 to San Diego near the end of WWII. I joined the 83 percent of all service men who never saw combat, only 17 percent were in actual fighting sites. I did see the destruction of combat. At war’s end my aircraft carrier, USS Barnes CVE-20 was decommissioned and I signed on to a supply ship USS Hamul, home ported in bombed out Plymouth, England, on to ravaged LeHarve, France, and the starved people in Amsterdam, Holland. After discharge on December 15, 1947, I’ve been a member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign War, and Aircraft Carriers Association for many Years.
My two passionate goals were to fly and play college football. While on the aircraft carrier I went through officer’s procurement office in Boston and was accepted for Navy flight school, but when the war ended nearly all programs were closed. After my navy discharge, for no reason I did not return to OU, (but in 1976 my OU absence went forward when we saw our number two son, Scott, play in his first OU football game against Utah State). In January of 1948, Jim Lookabaugh, Oklahoma AM coach, who first coached in Jet, Oklahoma offered me a scholarship but will never know why I didn’t accept.
Later in January of 1948, I enrolled at North Jr. College, Tonkawa as a pre-law student, played 2 years of football and met many life-long friends. One of whom was an attractive lady, Beverly Davies, transplant from Rochester, N.Y. to Pond Creek, Oklahoma. A friendship with a lot of jitterbugging big-band dances moved us forward to engagement and an acceptance March 8, 1950 to be married on the Bride and Groom Show in Hollywood, which was an amazing package of marriage, a week’s honeymoon, many gifts and lots of fun. We drove straight from Hollywood to Cumberland University, Tennessee for law school. Even with GI Bill, finances were short, so back to Oklahoma. Finished BA from OU and UCO, 1952, and eventually an MA from OU in 1961. In between those dates I was an English teacher and football coach; 2 years at Mooreland, Oklahoma, 2 years at Boeing, Wichita, 5 years football coaching at Chula Vista and Imperial Valley, California and 2 years at South High Wichita, then back to OU to complete the Ph.D. in Psychology. It was a good year, 1964, Ph. D and full-time chair of Special Education Department at Central Oklahoma, CSC, Edmond. Our final stop after moving 12 times.
I missed many activities of the boys’ sports and school, but with Beverly’s maintaining and rearing three boys and my efforts to stabilize income by working overtime hours resulted in having an intact home that carried forward to comfort and adulthood of the three boys. A connection that has continued onward to many family sharing activities besides the usual holiday breaks: such as five cruises plus individual trips to Rome, London, and Paris with the boys and their families. Kelly and Sherrye, 3 boys, Kacy, Kory, Kody; Scott and Joann, two girls adopted while in Romania, Bianca and Darci; Chris and Shelly, a boy and girl, Kyle and Blaze. All three families have extended to marriages that include their own children.
Mixed in with all those years after Navy discharge I was able to return to my desire to fly, and achieved a commercial Pilot license, flight Instructor ratings, and flying a WWII B-17 Flying Fortress throughout the USA and Canada for airshows. I returned to Navy aircraft carriers as a PACE instructor on the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Ronald Reagan. Flew onto the flight deck of the Reagan from Guam and then after Japan, Hong Kong, Korea. I flew off the flight deck to Okinawa which for a ole guy of 79 it was a thrill. Flying has been good to me even surviving a total loss place crash in Madison, Wisconsin on my 25th trip to Oshkosh airshow. We did it first class, though and crashed in a Lexus car lot. So flying was a continued pleasure totaling 69 years. I wrote five WWII books, plus seven university textbooks while at UCO. June 1-7 of 2016, I was invited by the French Normandy Group as one of seven veterans to be their guest for the week as we did flower lays, monument recognition, and many five course dinners supplied by Mayors and French families. Don’t have space to list all the activities, but as a whole it was a patriotic seven days. I’d been to Normandy five times previously, but not as a special guest. I was later honored with a trip to Washington, D.C., recognizing WWII veterans and was accompanied by my son, Scott. My greatest professional contribution was the Chair of the UCO Spec. Ed. Department for 29 years to include 16 professors and major programs in 5 Spec. Ed. Categories in both BS and MEd degrees and certifications.
Graveside services will be at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 21, 2024 at Gracelawn Cemetery.
Memorial services will be at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 21, 2024 at Matthews Funeral Home in Edmond, Oklahoma.
To watch the service CLICK HERE to go to our YouTube page. Click on ‘Videos’, then ‘Live Streams’.