Funeral services for Richard Bloedau, 85, of Norman were held Aug. 20, 2005 at Havenbrook Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. David Poteet and Chaplain Harry Smith officiating. Interment was at Resurrection Cemetery in Oklahoma City under the direction of Havenbrook Funeral Home in Norman.
Mr. Bloedau died Aug. 17, 2005 in Norman.
He was born Feb. 3, 1920 in Bismarck, N.D., the youngest of eight children.
Following graduation he went to work for the Civil Conservation Corps building dams and planting wheat at a game refuge. He then attended college for one year in Lemar, Iowa. When his father retired, he went to work on the farm for three years until he was drafted into the army in 1941.
Assigned to Shepherd Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, he became an airplane mechanic with the 301st Bomb Squadron serving in England, North Africa and Italy. He was a crew chief and mechanic on B-17 aircraft. Upon his return to the states, he was assigned to inspect B-29 aircraft in Grand Island, Neb.
Mr. Bloedau married Phyllis Kraus in 1944 and they had two sons, Rick, in 1945, and Ray, in 1952.
As a supervisor on concrete crews that built dams and powerhouses, he and his family moved yearly until 1965 when they settled in Oklahoma City. After 1-1/2 years serving in Vietnam in 1970 and 1971, he returned to Oklahoma and went to work for the state of Oklahoma as a highway and bridge inspector. Later he was assigned to manage a highway maintenance yard and remained there until his retirement in 1985.
Mr. Bloedau married Madeline in 1981 after the death of his wife.
He was preceded in death by his first wife, Phyllis, and two sons, Rick and Ray Bloedau.
Survivors include his wife, Madeline, of Norman; two daughters, Melody Atteberry and her husband, Bruce, of Goldsby, and Joy Reardon of Plano, Texas; two sons, Clark Lusk and his wife, Grace, of C’oeur’d Alene and Larry Lusk and his wife, Vicky, of Tulsa; sisters- and brothers-in-law, Gale and Elaine Rycroft of Oklahoma City and Jack and June Carpenter of Stroud; 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Heartland Hospice, 623 N. Porter Ave., Norman, OK 73071.
