Obituary of Gene Carol Berrier

Gene Carol Berrier died on Sunday, August 20, 2017. He was 91 years old. Gene will be interred next to his wife and son in the columbarium at All Saints Episcopal Church, Fort Worth.Gene was born on a farm in Sayre, Oklahoma, on May 26, 1926; his birth certificate showed his date of birth as 5-25-26, but his mother insisted that he was delivered after midnight and that the attending physician was too inebriated to know what time it was. He joined the Marine Corps in 1943, at age 17 years. He served with the First Marine Division in the Pacific theater, in combat on Peleliu and Okinawa.Gene met Ruth Kesler on a blind date on November 1, 1946, and married her on December 20, 1946. She preceded him in death on March 23, 2001, as did their son Bill, who died on January 15, 1998.Gene attended the Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and obtained an airframe and power plant license, as well as a private pilot license. He joined the Oklahoma National Guard, 45th Infantry Division, maintaining observation aircraft. He was activated in August of 1950, and served in Japan during the Korean War.Gene worked at Aero Design and Engineering from 1952 until 1956. In 1957, Gene joined the Federal Aviation Administration, where he worked as a manufacturing inspector. Gene retired in 1985, as manager of the Manufacturing Inspection Branch, Aircraft Certification Division, Southwest Region, Fort Worth.Gene is survived by his daughter Helen Ferguson and daughter-in-law Cindy Berrier; grandchildren Lillith Ferguson, Jackie Wade and husband Zachary Wade, and James Berrier and fiancé Kelly Anne O’Leary; and great-grandchildren Anjali and Maxwell Ferguson and Karter and Parker Wade.