Bill Joe ROBERTS
ROBERTS, PONTIUS, HAWIYEH-EHI, SPIDELL, WILSON, THOMPSON, JOHANSEN
Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 10/18/2016 at 18:14:46
September 28, 1925 ---- October 12, 2016
B. J. (Bill) Roberts
Billy Joe RobertsBill Roberts of Medford, Oregon died October 12, 2016, age 91, of COPD. He was born September 28, 1925, in Marietta, Oklahoma, the third son of Taylor and Sue Roberts. He served in the U.S Army Air Corps as a twin-engine B-25 Pilot. He married Margaret Pontius in Hugoton, Kansas in 1949, and attended the University of Oklahoma, graduating in 1952. He worked for several years in the oil industry in Kansas, and was the General Manager, Western Testing Co, in Great Bend, Kansas.
In 1960, he enrolled in McCormick Seminary in Chicago, graduating in 1964. He and Margaret served Presbyterian churches in Indiana, Illinois and Wichita, Kansas. He was part of the March on Washington for Jobs and Justice in 1963, and in Freedom Summer Voter Registration Projects in Mississippi. He worked as Executive Director of Joint Action in Community Service (JACS) in Washington, D.C., training volunteers to assist Job Corps graduates with employment needs. He later formed Job Skills Training, Inc., designing and implementing on-the-job training programs for educationally disadvantaged youth. From 1980 to 1993, he worked as an Ergonomics Consultant in California. After retiring in 1993, he participated in Indian Art Shows across the country, using the name Brad Hawiyeh-ehi, in honor of his Cherokee ancestors.
Bill was preceded in death by his wife, Faye Spidell Roberts, his daughter, Allyn Faye Roberts, brothers J.T. Roberts and Andrew Roberts, and sister Betty Sue Wilson. Survivors include his son, Jeffrey Lee (Lan) Roberts; his daughter, Juanita Ann (Tom) Thompson, grandson Andrew Thompson, granddaughter Sarah Thompson (Ben) Johansen, granddaughter Elizabeth Thompson, granddaughter Jennifer Roberts, grandson Kevin Roberts, and many nieces and nephews.
A private ceremony and internment of cremains in Troy Cemetery will be held in Eagle Grove, Iowa, November 26, 2016. Memorial donations may be made to the Council for Secular Humanism.
Wright Obituaries maintained by Karen De Groote.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen