Eugene Willey

Hastings resident, Eugene L. Willey, 65, died Thursday, September 28, 2006 at Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital after a valiant year long battle with lung cancer.

Private family graveside services and burial will be at the Willey family gravesite at Liberty, Nebraska with Pastor Earl Higgins officiating.

Mr. Willey was born November 25, 1940 at Home City, Kansas to Orville & Mae (Weise) Willey. At the beginning of WWII, his family relocated to Hastings, Nebraska. He graduated from Hastings High School in 1958 and enlisted in the United States Navy, where he received guided missile training. He was proud to have served in the Navy and to have been a plank owner of the USS Preble. Following his honorable discharge from the Navy, he used his technical skills to work on early computers at Honeywell in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was there, he met and married Elaine Morrison and they had two daughters. Following Elaine's accidental death in 1970, he shared the raising of his daughters with his mother, Mae, for two years and then took on the responsibility of raising them by himself. He and his daughters moved to Wichita, Kansas for a year and then to Bellevue, Nebraska, where he worked for Planning Research Corporation on then state-of-the-art parallel processor computers that were installed at the Strategic Air Command. In 1978, he and his daughters traveled to Tehran, Iran when he accepted a job with Lockheed. They were in Iran during the overthrow of the Shah and left just prior to the taking of the hostages at the American Embassy. He and his daughters then moved to Hastings, where he worked for Central Community College for several years. Prior to his retirement, he also worked on the computer systems at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Grand Island.

Mr. Willey was preceded in death by his parents and a daughter, Laura Willey.

Survivors include:
Daughter & Son-in-law: Tanya & Warren Bartel - Ventura, CA
Grandchildren: Elise Bartel - Ventura, CA
Thomas Bartel - Ventura, CA
Sisters: Juanita Sears - Hastings, NE
Judy Herberg - Hastings, NE
Dear friend: Linda Chartier - Hastings, NE