William Dale Stevens' Obituary
William Dale Stevens, son of Floyd Wayne Stevens and Flossie Arvilla (Northulp) Stevens was born in Topeka, Kansas on November 8, 1929 and departed this life in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the age of 85 years, 4 months and 3 days. He graduated from Topeka High School in 1947, and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Kansas State University in May, 1952. He entered the US Army in the fall of that years and, after basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, was sent to the Engineer School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, graduating first in his class in Water Supply. Upon transfer to Korea, he was assigned to the 2nd Engineer Construction Group, serving successively as Spare Parts Clark, Soil Laboratory Analyst, and Supply Sergeant for Group Headquarters. When discharged in 1954, he held the rank of Staff Sergeant. He accepted a position as Chemist at the D-X-Sunray refinery in Duncan, Oklahoma; then was promoted to Process Engineer. During this period he learned programming and was transferred to corporate headquarters in Tulsa to work in the Manufacturing Department’s computer group. In 1960, he accepted a position in the corresponding organization at Skelly Oil Company as a Process Economics Engineer. With the formation of Skelly’s corporate Computer Department in 1967, he was named as Technical Assistant to the Department Manager, later becoming Manager of the Scientific Applications Division. During the successive mergers of Skelly with Getty Oil Company and Texaco Inc., he continued in various positions until, at his retirement on January 1, 1994, he was in charge of the entire Tulsa Data Center, as Director, Information Systems. An avid reader, his personal library currently consists of over a thousand volumes, and almost that many magazines. He was extremely interested in science fiction, both its content and its history, and reviewed it for several nationally circulated periodicals. Some of his reviews and articles appear in half-a-dozen books, and his reviews have been cited on numerous paperbacks. He was a member of SHARE Inc., a nationally known computer users group, for over 30 years and served on its Senior Management team and Board of Directors for most of that time, finally retiring from active participation in 1995. He was also active in the Green Country Water Garden Society, serving on its Board and publishing its newsletter in 1997 and 1998. He and his wife displayed their ponds for several years, during the Society’s Annual Pond Tour. They also maintained a highly successful web page, offering advice on water gardening. He was a member of Intertel, an international high IQ society, and served successive terms as International General Secretary. He was in charge of the Intertel Acceptance Committee for over 25 years. He considered himself to be a remarkably fortunate man. He is survived by his wife, Elva, of the home; two sons, John and wife Janine of Baltimore MD, and Charles and wife Anne of Fargo, ND; two step-sons, Mike Batson and Brian Paul, of Tulsa, and nine grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents; three brothers, Donald, Dean and Victor; one sister, Lyla Sligar. A visitation will be held March 16th at Floral Haven Funeral home between 6:00 and 8:00 PM Services will be held March 17th at Floral Haven Funeral Home at 10:00 AM. Graveside services will follow at 2:30 PM at Ewing Chapel Cemetery in Stilwell, Oklahoma.
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