Published: September 04, 2008 11:30 am            

Gene L. Post

Long-time Stillwater resident and beloved husband, father and grandfather Gene Leroy Post passed away Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008, at the Oklahoma Veterans Center in Norman following a courageous battle with Alzheimer’s. He was 80.

Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Strode Funeral Home Chapel in Stillwater, the Rev. Lonnie Green officiating. Interment will be in Fairlawn Cemetery in Stillwater.

He was born on Dec. 28, 1927, in North Platte, Neb., to Edd Post and Beaulah (Gunn) Post. After an award-winning high school career in football and track at Grand Island, Neb., he served for more than a year with Army post-WWII occupational forces in Japan.

He graduated from Bethany Peniel College (now Southern Nazarene University) in 1951, after meeting and marrying Marietta Willsey of Stillwater on Aug. 19, 1949. He later taught for Oklahoma City Public Schools while completing his master of education degree at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

In 1961, he moved with his wife and children to Stillwater to pursue doctoral studies in education and received his Ed.D. from Oklahoma State University in 1965. He joined OSU’s faculty soon thereafter and, except for a two-year administrative stint at Point Loma Nazarene College in San Diego (1978-1980), remained with the College of Education until his retirement from OSU in 1986.

In retirement he returned briefly to the school of journalism to teach one of his favorite pastimes: black and white photography and darkroom technique. During this period he captured what has become his best-known local photograph, a color snowscape of Old Central, later reproduced in limited edition on behalf of the OSU Alumni Association.

Throughout his life and career in Stillwater, Gene has been known, loved and admired in many roles — expert amateur photographer, master model airplane builder and flyer, devout member of Stillwater’s University and First Churches of the Nazarene and ever-hopeful fan of OSU football.

He was predeceased by his parents; his stepmother, Erma Post; his older brother, Edward Post; and his grandson, Spencer Lee Green.

He is survived by his wife, Marietta Post; two children, Christie (Post) Green and her husband, Lonnie, and Lisa Post; grandson Scott Green; and many nieces and nephews.

Memorials may be made to the Life Adult Day Center of Stillwater, 411 W. Mathews, Stillwater, Okla., 74075.

Condolences may be e-mailed to the family and an online obituary may be viewed by visiting www.strodefh.com.

        

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