Mother named me William E
Dad would call me Will
But all my friends and family
Called me just plain “Bill”
William E. “Bill” Bock was born March 27, 1930 in Brush, CO to Neil and Vera (Mangus) Bock. He left this earthly life at his home December 18, 2020.
Bill traveled from Brush, CO to Philomath, OR during the “30s with his parents and siblings. The family returned in 1937 to the Lebanon area, where his Uncle Jack Bock resided. He spent most of his adult life right around the Stuart community south of Lebanon. He began school at the Oak Creek schoolhouse, later graduating from Lebanon High School in 1948. Following graduation, Bill helped his dad and worked for neighbors before being drafted into the U.S. Marines in 1951. He was discharged in 1953.
In November 1953, he was united in marriage to Sherry Dee Chidester in Downs, KS. The plan had been to be married at the Oak Creek Church south of Lebanon, but it snowed and the preacher didn’t think he could make it to Oak Creek, so Bill said they would all go to Downs.
Five children were born to this union: Richard Wayne (Dick), Robert Allan (Tad), Sandra Jeane, Laura Susan and Rhonda Lynne.
Following his discharge for the Marines, Bill helped his aunt, Carol Bock with the farming, following the death of his Uncle Jack, .....living in the “little house”. In 1959, the family moved not her to the rock house on the old Porter Ranch, where they resided until 2014 after purchasing a home at 1 Circle Drive in Downs.
Bill drove a school bus, farmed and was a rural mail carrier. He retired from the Postal Service in 1998 after 35 years as a postal employee. He continued with his farming until moving to Downs in 2014.
Bill was a friendly guy with a heart for helping friends and neighbors...and he was blessed to live in a neighborhood that was all about being neighborly.
He was preceded in death by his parents, daughter Sandra Blankenbaker, grandsons Andrew Bock and Joshua Simmelink, his mother and father-in-law Edna and Arthur Chester, sister and husband Eula and Wayne Merrill Thompson, brother Lloyd “Bud” Bock and brother-in-law Willis Rousey.
Left to miss his presence in their lives are: wife Sherry of the home; sons Richard (Linda) of Lebanon and Robert (Terri) of Ellsworth; daughters Laura (Vernon) Ray of Salina and Rhonda (Roy) Atwood of Esbon; 11 grandchildren: Erica, Crystal, Jessica, Jason, Mary, Carissa, Jordan, Evan, Michaela, Lane and Jeremy; 10 great grandchildren: Nicholas, Whitley, Elijah, Jaxon, Miyah, Violet, Izayah , Levi, Ava and Eva, and 2 great great grandchildren: Jackson and Samuel; sisters: Ruth (Raymond) Griffith of Phillipsburg and Donna (Forrest) Holiday of Havensville, sisters-in-law: LaVerne Bock of Kremmling, CO and Marilynn Rousey of Hutchinson, as well as nieces, nephews, cousins and a multitude of friends.
A celebration of Bill’s life will be held at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, December 29, 2020 at All Faiths Funeral Chapel, Smith Center, KS, with Pastor Lance McDowell officiating. There will not be a public visitation as cremation was chosen. Memorials may be given to the First Christian Church of Downs or Downs Food Bank.
Dad would call me Will
But all my friends and family
Called me just plain “Bill”
William E. “Bill” Bock was born March 27, 1930 in Brush, CO to Neil and Vera (Mangus) Bock. He left this earthly life at his home December 18, 2020.
Bill traveled from Brush, CO to Philomath, OR during the “30s with his parents and siblings. The family returned in 1937 to the Lebanon area, where his Uncle Jack Bock resided. He spent most of his adult life right around the Stuart community south of Lebanon. He began school at the Oak Creek schoolhouse, later graduating from Lebanon High School in 1948. Following graduation, Bill helped his dad and worked for neighbors before being drafted into the U.S. Marines in 1951. He was discharged in 1953.
In November 1953, he was united in marriage to Sherry Dee Chidester in Downs, KS. The plan had been to be married at the Oak Creek Church south of Lebanon, but it snowed and the preacher didn’t think he could make it to Oak Creek, so Bill said they would all go to Downs.
Five children were born to this union: Richard Wayne (Dick), Robert Allan (Tad), Sandra Jeane, Laura Susan and Rhonda Lynne.
Following his discharge for the Marines, Bill helped his aunt, Carol Bock with the farming, following the death of his Uncle Jack, .....living in the “little house”. In 1959, the family moved not her to the rock house on the old Porter Ranch, where they resided until 2014 after purchasing a home at 1 Circle Drive in Downs.
Bill drove a school bus, farmed and was a rural mail carrier. He retired from the Postal Service in 1998 after 35 years as a postal employee. He continued with his farming until moving to Downs in 2014.
Bill was a friendly guy with a heart for helping friends and neighbors...and he was blessed to live in a neighborhood that was all about being neighborly.
He was preceded in death by his parents, daughter Sandra Blankenbaker, grandsons Andrew Bock and Joshua Simmelink, his mother and father-in-law Edna and Arthur Chester, sister and husband Eula and Wayne Merrill Thompson, brother Lloyd “Bud” Bock and brother-in-law Willis Rousey.
Left to miss his presence in their lives are: wife Sherry of the home; sons Richard (Linda) of Lebanon and Robert (Terri) of Ellsworth; daughters Laura (Vernon) Ray of Salina and Rhonda (Roy) Atwood of Esbon; 11 grandchildren: Erica, Crystal, Jessica, Jason, Mary, Carissa, Jordan, Evan, Michaela, Lane and Jeremy; 10 great grandchildren: Nicholas, Whitley, Elijah, Jaxon, Miyah, Violet, Izayah , Levi, Ava and Eva, and 2 great great grandchildren: Jackson and Samuel; sisters: Ruth (Raymond) Griffith of Phillipsburg and Donna (Forrest) Holiday of Havensville, sisters-in-law: LaVerne Bock of Kremmling, CO and Marilynn Rousey of Hutchinson, as well as nieces, nephews, cousins and a multitude of friends.
A celebration of Bill’s life will be held at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, December 29, 2020 at All Faiths Funeral Chapel, Smith Center, KS, with Pastor Lance McDowell officiating. There will not be a public visitation as cremation was chosen. Memorials may be given to the First Christian Church of Downs or Downs Food Bank.
Mother named me William E
Dad would call me Will
But all my friends and family
Called me just plain “Bill”
William E. “Bill” Bock was born March 27, 1930 in Brush, CO to Neil and Vera (Mangus) Bock. He left this earthly life at his home December 18, 2020.
Bill traveled from Brush, CO to Philomath, OR during the “30s with his parents and siblings. The family returned in 1937 to the Lebanon area, where his Uncle Jack Bock resided. He spent most of his adult life right around the Stuart community south of Lebanon. He began school at the Oak Creek schoolhouse, later graduating from Lebanon High School in 1948. Following graduation, Bill helped his dad and worked for neighbors before being drafted into the U.S. Marines in 1951. He was discharged in 1953.
In November 1953, he was united in marriage to Sherry Dee Chidester in Downs, KS. The plan had been to be married at the Oak Creek Church south of Lebanon, but it snowed and the preacher didn’t think he could make it to Oak Creek, so Bill said they would all go to Downs.
Five children were born to this union: Richard Wayne (Dick), Robert Allan (Tad), Sandra Jeane, Laura Susan and Rhonda Lynne.
Following his discharge for the Marines, Bill helped his aunt, Carol Bock with the farming, following the death of his Uncle Jack, .....living in the “little house”. In 1959, the family moved not her to the rock house on the old Porter Ranch, where they resided until 2014 after purchasing a home at 1 Circle Drive in Downs.
Bill drove a school bus, farmed and was a rural mail carrier. He retired from the Postal Service in 1998 after 35 years as a postal employee. He continued with his farming until moving to Downs in 2014.
Bill was a friendly guy with a heart for helping friends and neighbors...and he was blessed to live in a neighborhood that was all about being neighborly.
He was preceded in death by his parents, daughter Sandra Blankenbaker, grandsons Andrew Bock and Joshua Simmelink, his mother and father-in-law Edna and Arthur Chester, sister and husband Eula and Wayne Merrill Thompson, brother Lloyd “Bud” Bock and brother-in-law Willis Rousey.
Left to miss his presence in their lives are: wife Sherry of the home; sons Richard (Linda) of Lebanon and Robert (Terri) of Ellsworth; daughters Laura (Vernon) Ray of Salina and Rhonda (Roy) Atwood of Esbon; 11 grandchildren: Erica, Crystal, Jessica, Jason, Mary, Carissa, Jordan, Evan, Michaela, Lane and Jeremy; 10 great grandchildren: Nicholas, Whitley, Elijah, Jaxon, Miyah, Violet, Izayah , Levi, Ava and Eva, and 2 great great grandchildren: Jackson and Samuel; sisters: Ruth (Raymond) Griffith of Phillipsburg and Donna (Forrest) Holiday of Havensville, sisters-in-law: LaVerne Bock of Kremmling, CO and Marilynn Rousey of Hutchinson, as well as nieces, nephews, cousins and a multitude of friends.
A celebration of Bill’s life will be held at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, December 29, 2020 at All Faiths Funeral Chapel, Smith Center, KS, with Pastor Lance McDowell officiating. There will not be a public visitation as cremation was chosen. Memorials may be given to the First Christian Church of Downs or Downs Food Bank.
Dad would call me Will
But all my friends and family
Called me just plain “Bill”
William E. “Bill” Bock was born March 27, 1930 in Brush, CO to Neil and Vera (Mangus) Bock. He left this earthly life at his home December 18, 2020.
Bill traveled from Brush, CO to Philomath, OR during the “30s with his parents and siblings. The family returned in 1937 to the Lebanon area, where his Uncle Jack Bock resided. He spent most of his adult life right around the Stuart community south of Lebanon. He began school at the Oak Creek schoolhouse, later graduating from Lebanon High School in 1948. Following graduation, Bill helped his dad and worked for neighbors before being drafted into the U.S. Marines in 1951. He was discharged in 1953.
In November 1953, he was united in marriage to Sherry Dee Chidester in Downs, KS. The plan had been to be married at the Oak Creek Church south of Lebanon, but it snowed and the preacher didn’t think he could make it to Oak Creek, so Bill said they would all go to Downs.
Five children were born to this union: Richard Wayne (Dick), Robert Allan (Tad), Sandra Jeane, Laura Susan and Rhonda Lynne.
Following his discharge for the Marines, Bill helped his aunt, Carol Bock with the farming, following the death of his Uncle Jack, .....living in the “little house”. In 1959, the family moved not her to the rock house on the old Porter Ranch, where they resided until 2014 after purchasing a home at 1 Circle Drive in Downs.
Bill drove a school bus, farmed and was a rural mail carrier. He retired from the Postal Service in 1998 after 35 years as a postal employee. He continued with his farming until moving to Downs in 2014.
Bill was a friendly guy with a heart for helping friends and neighbors...and he was blessed to live in a neighborhood that was all about being neighborly.
He was preceded in death by his parents, daughter Sandra Blankenbaker, grandsons Andrew Bock and Joshua Simmelink, his mother and father-in-law Edna and Arthur Chester, sister and husband Eula and Wayne Merrill Thompson, brother Lloyd “Bud” Bock and brother-in-law Willis Rousey.
Left to miss his presence in their lives are: wife Sherry of the home; sons Richard (Linda) of Lebanon and Robert (Terri) of Ellsworth; daughters Laura (Vernon) Ray of Salina and Rhonda (Roy) Atwood of Esbon; 11 grandchildren: Erica, Crystal, Jessica, Jason, Mary, Carissa, Jordan, Evan, Michaela, Lane and Jeremy; 10 great grandchildren: Nicholas, Whitley, Elijah, Jaxon, Miyah, Violet, Izayah , Levi, Ava and Eva, and 2 great great grandchildren: Jackson and Samuel; sisters: Ruth (Raymond) Griffith of Phillipsburg and Donna (Forrest) Holiday of Havensville, sisters-in-law: LaVerne Bock of Kremmling, CO and Marilynn Rousey of Hutchinson, as well as nieces, nephews, cousins and a multitude of friends.
A celebration of Bill’s life will be held at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, December 29, 2020 at All Faiths Funeral Chapel, Smith Center, KS, with Pastor Lance McDowell officiating. There will not be a public visitation as cremation was chosen. Memorials may be given to the First Christian Church of Downs or Downs Food Bank.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
