Obit of Boyt, Gene P. - Creek County, Oklahoma

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::Fairlawn Cemetery--Chickasha OK

© The Chickasha Express-Star 14 Sep 2003

Gene P. Boyt

Memorial services for Gene P. Boyt, 86, of Chickasha, will be held Monday,
September 15, 2003, at 2:30 p.m. in the Ferguson Funeral Home Chapel.

Gene P. Boyt was born March 29, 1917, in Houston, Missouri, son of Ernest
Boyt and Margaret (Phemister) Boyt. He died September 11, 2003, in
Oklahoma City, Okla.

Gene's father was an oil field worker, so Gene grew up living in many
towns in Oklahoma. He went to high school in Drumright, Oklahoma, and
graduated in 1935. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and then
attended the University of Arizona.

Gene graduated from the Missouri School of Mines in Rolla, Missouri, in
1941. He then joined the United States Army and was sent to the
Philippines as a lieutenant in the Engineering Corps.

He was captured and taken prisoner on April 9, 1942, and was held for
three and one-half years, serving two and one-half of those years in
Japan. He survived the Bataan Death March and was in a Japanese prison
camp when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed during World War II.

He was released and returned to the United States, stationed at Borden

General in Chickasha. He married Betty Ruth Dietrich on May 30, 1946, in
the Chapel of Borden General Hospital.

After discharge, Gene was an engineer for the Bureau of Reclamation,
building hydroelectric dams. He helped with the building of the Davis Dam
in Bull Head City, Arizona, Palisades Dam in Idaho, Flaming Forge Dam in
Utah, and Blue Mesa and Morrow Point Dams in Colorado. He also assisted in
the construction of two dams in Puerto Rico, for the Puerto Rico Water
Source Authority. He retired in 1975, and returned to Chickasha.

Gene was a much-decorated soldier, having been awarded the Purple Heart,
the Bronze Star, three Presidential Citations, the Philippines'
Presidential Citation Medal, and the Oklahoma Medal of Valor.

Gene and David Burch co-authored a book titled "Bataan, A Survivor's
Story," published by the Oklahoma University Press, which details his life
and war-time experiences. The book will be released in February 2004.

Gene was preceded in death by both parents, one brother, and one sister.

Survivors include his wife, Betty Ruth, of the home; two sons and
daughters-in-law, Robert and Marvina Boyt, of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and
Thomas and Janice Boyt, of Edmond, Oklahoma; four grandchildren, Brandon
Robert Boyt, of Los Angeles, California, Shoni L. Boyt and Abbie Rae Boyt,
both of Edmond, Oklahoma, and Kami Ruth Boyt, of Denver, Colorado.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Dean McGee Eye Institute,
The Development Office, Suite 300, 608 Stanton L. Young Blvd., Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma 73104 (ATTN: Misty).

Interment will be in the Fairlawn Cemetery under the direction of Ferguson
Funeral Home.
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