Obituary of Wallace Funk

Wally was born into a hardworking farming family in Logan, Utah. Logan was the closest city that had a hospital. His father was a farmer and his mother was a homemaker, who would also help out on the farm when needed. Up until Wally was 12 years old, he and his two younger brothers lived in the small farming town of Trenton, Utah. Then the family moved to Tremonton, Utah for another eight years. Wally grew up as a farm boy learning at a young age the meaning of working hard to make a living. His family's farm primarily consisted of sugar beets, peas, potatoes, wheat, various gardens, pigs, and cows. Since Utah had such dry soil Wally's family farm was irrigated so that water canals would go through the fields to water the crops. The family would harvest the sugar beets from October to November and also milked dairy cows. Wally's mother was also very good at canning food to keep it fresh through the winter seasons, when they couldn't rely on their crops to sustain the family. Wally's earliest memory was when he was three years old and he got the tip of his right index finger cut off. This accident occurred when he placed his hand on the cogwheels of an old washing machine. With the doctor miles away, by the time the family reached the doctor and was bandaged, Wally had fallen asleep in his father's arms.

Growing up Wally said there weren't too many recreational activities to do on the farm. Wally does, however, have one memory of when he was about four years old and his brother was two. They took a vacation as a family and drove to Los Angeles, California to see some relatives. He remembers how his brother ran from the waves in fear of getting his clothes wet, because they had always been taught to never get their clothes dirty. When Wally went to high school he excelled in his math and science courses. His teachers recognized Wally's talents and even let him teach a few of the Algebra classes his senior year.

Wally always thought he would grow up to follow in the family business of becoming a farmer just like his father. However, it wasn't until he attended college at Utah State University that his life took a change in a direction other than farming. Wally did not attend Utah State University for very long, at the age of 20 he went on a two year mission for his Mormon church. Once Wally returned from that mission he was drafted into the army, where he dedicated 12 years of his life to serve his country. He rose through the ranks to staff sergeant. Since Wally excelled in high school he was able to become an artillery repair radio specialist for the Army. He joined the army's active reserve as a P.F.C. and then went to California for his basic training, where his captain said Wally had one of the highest G.T. scores he had ever seen. From basic he went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma where he took artillery repair maintenance courses. Since Wally was number three in his graduating class, he stayed on as an assistant instructor. His director, a lieutenant colonel, was taking command on an artillery battalion to go to Germany and asked Wally to join his unit. He was asked to reenlist.

In December of 1958 two trains full of troops were sent from Oklahoma to Virginia where they boarded big ships to Germany. Wally was among these men. Looking back, he is glad that they were only at sea for nine days, because the waters were very rough. While in Germany, Wally was given top secret clearance. He however, decided to stay in artillery, where he laid wire for the gunners.

Wally recalls that he didn't go out much while in Germany, because they were always doing lots of training. He does remember that once his troop went to a small German village, and the Germans seemed to appreciate the Americans being there. In fact the majority of Germans were thankful and respectful of the Americans.

While in Germany, Wally was sent on a special assignment to Iran for six months in 1959. In Iran he supervised the installation of artillery radio repairs from tube radios for cars and trucks. Wally recalls that Iran was a different culture. The people there were predominantly Muslim, and people mostly lived around the rivers. He remembers that there was no public sanitation, and the Army lived in the number one hotel in the city compared to American standards. After Wally returned to Germany from Iran his father was tragically killed in an automobile accident. Wally was then reassigned back to Fort Sill, Oklahoma from 1960-1963. After Fort Sill, Wally reenlisted a second time and went back to Germany where he was placed in the Fifth Corps artillery. While he was in Germany for his second tour, he was placed into the classified communications Second Corps. Through his two tours, Wally spent a total of five years in Germany. In 1966 he was transferred to the U.S. Army Signal Corps at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. While at Fort Leavenworth Wally attended communications officer school for promotions, where he first got involved with computers. This work with the Teletype computers came easy to Wally. He had a logical way of thinking so he could program the computers on the fly without having to create a flow chart to plan out how he would create the program. In 1967 Wally was again transferred. This time it was to the Panama Canal where he stayed for sixteen months. While in Panama he had the chance to observe the ships going through the canal from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1969 Wally was discharged from the Army.

After his discharge, Wally had the opportunity to become a civilian employee at Univac, where he had the equivalent rankings of a major. He recalls that joining the Army changed his previous notions of becoming a farmer like his father. It was back when Wally was finishing his artillery radio repair schooling in Fort Sill that his father asked Wally if he wanted to go back to the family farm. Wally declined, and his father never held it against him or his brothers for not becoming farmers. His father knew that it was a hard way of life and the farm had became too small to support a family.

Besides his time in the Army or working for Univac, Wally is very proud to say that he was able to witness the Apollo missions. When he was in Coco Beach, Florida, Wally physically saw every moon landing take off, except for one. He was even able to see the actual take off of the first moon landing. While he was there, Wally obtained a pass to go to Cape Kennedy, Florida and visit the site. He also recalls watching the last Apollo mission. This was in 1972, on a roof at a motel, in Coral Gables, Florida.

In 1979 Wally's life took another dramatic change. This happened the day he met his wife, Connie, while living in Norristown, Pennsylvania. They met in March at their church in Jeffersonville, Pennsylvania and were married in October that year. The two of them went on to live a happy and adventurous marriage. Together they traveled to Hawaii twice, had a lovely honeymoon in Bermuda, and took 2 trips to Portugal and Spain to visit Connie's family. All of this was possible through their time share exchange. Wally says to this day that meeting Connie was the happiest moment of his life. In 1993, Wally and Connie retired to Punta Gorda, Florida where they spent twelve wonderful years until Hurricane Charlie hit. Even though they weathered the storm okay, they thought it was time to move back to Coatesville, Pennsylvania in 2005.

Growing up on a farm made Wally think about priorities, responsibilities, hard work, and the changes that can effect your life for the better or the worse. Growing up his family only had enough money to get by on what they needed. That taught Wally to be conservative with his money and not make impulsive purchases. Wally looks back on five or six major decisions in his life that. Had he chose differently, his life probably would have been quite different.