Lawrence Wigger

February 24, 1925 - June 22, 2020

Lawrence Henry Wigger was born to Henry and Frieda Wigger on a farm near Vassar, Kansas in Osage County in 1925. He graduated from Farmersville Grade School in 1939 and then graduated from Michigan Valley High School in 1943. Lawrence married Eileen Kersten from Tacoma, WA in 1946. After enlisting in the Coast guard in 1946, he was transferred to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and spent 180 mo. maintaining the Coast Guards navigation system in the St. Maries River between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron from Escanaba Michigan to Duluth, Minn. in 1948 he was transferred to the Coast Guards training station in Groton, Conn. where he remained as an instructor in the Coast Guard Radio Engineering & Maintenance School until his discharge in 1949. After leaving the Coast Guard, he enrolled at Kansas state University at Manhatten, Kansas in the school of Electrical Engineering. He graduated in 1954 with a B.S.E.E with an electronics option. Upon graduation, he was employed by Cities Service Oil Co. in Bartlesville, OK. and participated in their training program with assignments in Bartlesville, Niles Michigan and Oklahoma Cityand subsequently took permanent assignment in the Exploration and Production Dept. in the Oil Hill,Kansas District near El Dorado, Kansas. in 1958 he was transferred to Bartlesville, OK as a PEt. Engineer and subsequently was promoted to Electrical EquipmentEngineer and Chief Automation Engineer for the Oil Production Dept. He later transferred to Tulsa and joined the Cities Service Corporate Group as Telecommunications Planning Mgr. and assisted with projects in Colombia South America, Java, Indonesia and Holland. He coordinated the development and installation of the first satellite communication station on an off-shore production platform in the High island are of the Gulf of Mexico and coordinated the acquisition of the first Federal Communications Comm. license authorizing the application of satellite communication service to an off- shore production platform. Larry retired from Cities Service Co. in 1983. He was a member of the Oklahoma Society if Professional Engineers, National Society of Professional Engineers, the IEEE and ISA. While living in Bartlesville, he served as President of Redeemer Lutheran Church and as an elder. As a member of our Savior Lutheran Church in tulsa he severed as Chair of the Properties and Youth Boards. Prior to their death, established an Endowment Fund at Concordia Lutheran Seminary in St. Louis, Mo. for married senior students in the name of Henry and Frieda Wigger, his parents and requests that any memorials to him be directed to that fund. He is preceded in death by daughter Julie C. Grossman. He is survived by his wife Eileen G. Wigger; son David A. Wigger and wife Karen of Tulsa, OK; Bryan and Spencer Grossman of Seattle and granddaughter Rachel Wigger of Tulsa. He was an avid hunter and fisherman and he prized his family and friends above all earthly things.