Obit of Gene P. Boyt (b300) - Grady County, Oklahoma Submitted by: Sandi Carter 24 Sep 2003 Return to Grady County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/grady/grady.html ========================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ========================================================================== The Chickasha Express-Star 12 September 2003 GENE P. BOYT Memorial services for Gene P. Boyt, 86, of Chickasha, Okla., are pending with Ferguson Funeral Home. Gene P. Boyt was born March 3, 1917, in Houston, MO, and died on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2003, in Oklahoma City, Okla. ========== The Chickasha Express-Star 14 September 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 David Sam in Hull 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 wartime 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Grady County Archives: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/grady/grady.html