Wilbur McGehee

VIETNAM ERA AIR FORCE VETERAN HANGS UP HIS WINGS

Wilbur (Bill) McGehee left this earth at 1:30 Zulu time on Monday, 7 June 2021 at the age of 80. Bill was a loving father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, husband, and friend. He served his country through his duty with the United States Air Force as combat support in aviation electronics. However, it wasn’t until years later, in the early 1980s, that he earned his pilot’s license and began his love affair with the skies. After his military career, Bill served as a firefighter for the Dallas Fire Department and then went on to move technology forward as an electrical engineer for Western Electric. Later in life, when Bill could no longer take to the skies, he would often reflect on how much he loved to be in the air.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air . . .

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark nor even eagle flew –

And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

                  -John Gillespie Magee Jr.

Bill will be remembered fondly by his three siblings and their spouses, his two children and their spouses, his grandson, his great-granddaughter, and his cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends.

Services to be held at Martin’s Funeral Home in Granbury, Texas, on Tuesday, June 15, 2021 at 11 am, with visitation held prior from 10 am-11 am. Interment immediately following the service at Holly Hills Memorial Park.