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Harry Lawrence Boyd

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Funeral services for Harry Lawrence Boyd, 85, willl be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 21, 2022 at the Wilson-Little Funeral Home Chapel. Interment will be at the Warren Cemetery in Norman under the direction of the Wilson-Little Funeral Home in Purcell.

Harry Lawrence Boyd passed from this life on Wednesday, April 13, 2022 after a four-year battle with cancer, with Nova and his sons by his side.

Mr. Boyd was born in Ada, Oklahoma, on March 18, 1937, the fourth child and only son of Harry Leander Boyd and Bernice Marie Rhodes Boyd.  He grew up west of Ada at Mijo Camp at Oil Center, the headquarters office and pumping station for Benedum Trees Oil Company, where his Dad ran the power house. 

He attended Worstell School, a local country school, for his elementary years, where his oldest sister, Virginia, was his schoolteacher.  He then transferred to Horace Mann in Ada, graduating  with the class of 1955.

He spent one semester at East Central University in Ada, then enrolled at Okmulgee Tech, now Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology, earning an associate degree in drafting and design.

His first job was working for Boeing in Wichita, Kan., helping to build B-52 bombers. He later transferred with Boeing to their Fort Worth, Texas, facility.

Harry started working for OG&E in early 1961, starting his employment in the drafting room.  Later that year his National Guard unit of the 45th Division was called up during the Berlin Crisis, when the communists put up the Berlin Wall, separating Germany into West Germany and East Germany. His unit ran the base and trained troops.

After returning from active duty, Harry started working his way up at OG&E, finally becoming Senior Designer in Transmission Engineering.  Many of the cross-country power lines that you see in OG&E territory have his signature on them. When he retired in 1994, he had 33 years with the company.

After retirement, he went to work for two contractors who used to do work for him, Lon Spencer and A. J. Clements. This contracting work added another 19 years doing work for OG&E

Harry and Nova Gayle Lewis were married on May 28, 1965.  They had two boys, Steve in 1966 and Chris in 1970.  They celebrated 56 years of marriage in May 2021.   

During the boy’s school years at Washington, he was a 4-H dad, a basketball dad and an FFA dad. Steve and Chris showed pigs for their projects, and Harry got very involved in going on buying trips with Vo-Ag teacher Jerry Ille. He was very active in their shows and fairs and in caring for the animals.

He was preceded in death by his mother and father, Harry and Bernice Boyd; his three older sisters, Virginia Evans, Udene Cummings and Rhea Jean Gilmore and a niece, Gayle Cummings.

He is survived by his wife, Nova; son Steve and wife, Chandra, and granddaughter, Poppy; son,  Chris and wife, Amanda, and grandchildren, Marshall and Presley, and a number of nieces and nephews, great-nieces and nephews plus a new great-great-niece and nephew.

His greatest joys were his children and grandchildren. And getting the grass mowed just right!    

Online condolences may be made at wilsonlittle.com.