Orville Woodward

Orville K. Woodward was born in Tuttle, North Dakota on August 7, 1940. He was raised in Tuttle and completed his schooling there. He graduated from Tuttle High School in 1958. He began working for the State Highway Department. Shortly after graduation they were sent to Killdeer, North Dakota to do surveying and that is where he met his future wife, Amelia (Amy) Roshau. They were married in 1963 after Orville was drafted into the Army. Their first child, Brian, was born February 7, 1964. He was 1-year-old when Orville returned from Germany. After returning to North Dakota, Orville again worked for the State Highway Department. This became a challenging job to do in the wintertime, so he then changed careers. He worked for Vanitne’s Paint, Glass & Flooring store installing floors, counter tops, and wall tiles. In 1969 their daughter Debra was born on April 7. Debra had several bouts of pneumonia before she was 2 and the decision was made to move to Arizona in 1971. They lived in Phoenix for 17 years and then moved to Peoria in 1988. By then, Orville was working City of Phoenix in the Parks & Recreation Department. Orville retired from the City of Phoenix the end of 2003. In December of 2005, Debra passed away from complications of diabetes, and Orville and Amy raised their 12- year-old granddaughter, Chanel. In 2010, Orville moved his family to Sun City, AZ, where they still reside. From 2015 to 2020 Orville had numerous medical issues. He was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation after a stroke. He recover after this was good. He then had a heart attack which necessitated a triple bypass. In 2018, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer that had metastasized to the bones. He had undergone radiation, only to later find the metastatic cancer had moved up the spine into his neck and shoulders. Another stroke weakened the left side of his body which brought on quickly progressing dementia. After the strokes in March of 2019, Orville was confined to a wheelchair. He had seizures which continued to affect his behavior, thinking, and reasoning. He was at a point where he could not take care of himself, the care was too difficult for his family to bear and provide him with the care that his condition required, and it was necessary to move him into an assisted living facility in June of 2020. The cancer continued to spread and finally took his life on December 23, 2020.

Orville is survived by his wife, Amy, his son Brian and daughter-in-law Nova, sister Lucille Greer, and four granddaughters, Chanel Kingan, and Jessica, Gabrielle and Dakota Woodward.