Mr. Raymond Dykstra

Raymond Dykstra of Oak Lawn, Illinois, age 90, a proud veteran of WWII and member of the “greatest generation” died at home on May 29, 2014 while recovering from a heart attack suffered this last March. He was born in Chicago on September 10th, 1923 to Fannie (nee Fennema) and Charles Dykstra of East Prairie, Missouri, and he was preceded in death by his loving wife of 70 years, Vivian, in October of 2012. He was a caring husband, father and grandfather, who is we pray now with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Ray was a graduate of Crane Technical in Chicago, where he was Senior Class President and Valedictorian of his graduating class. He played trumpet in the school band; an enjoyment for which he later passed on to his son, Roger. After high school, with WWII looming, he enlisted in a special program to train weathermen for the Air Force that took him first to Amherst College in New Hampshire and later to Yale University in New Haven, Conn. After graduating as an officer, he was assigned to the new Radar group, first in Florida and later California. He said he was slated for the invasion of Japan, but was fortunate that the war ended before this was necessary.

Before leaving for the service, Ray married his high school sweetheart, Vivian Mishkutz. They were married on October 11, 1942 and were together for 70 years. Vivian followed him through several of his WWII assignments- to Amherst, New Haven, and later to Orlando, Florida. After the war, they lived with her parents in Chicago until moving to Oak Lawn in 1950.

After his discharge, Ray returned to his job at Western Electric (now Lucent/Alcatel) at the famous Hawthorne plant in Cicero, Illinois. With his 3 years of college credits and scientific training, he was soon promoted to electrical engineer. He worked on the design of new telephone exchanges, primarily in the Southwest U.S. When the networking group was dispersed around the country in the early 60’s, Ray stayed in Chicago. Now a Senior Engineer with a group of his own, he learned to write computer programs so that a large part of the equipment engineering job could be automated. As he said “he computerized most of the jobs, but not his.” Transferred to the Bell Telephone Laboratories in Naperville in the mid-70’s he continued there until retirement in 1986.

After retiring, Ray and Vivian annually returned to Florida (the Tampa Bay area) for the winter for more than a decade, to resume the good times they enjoyed during the war. Family and friends often dropped in and some even stayed for awhile themselves.

Raymond is survived by and will be lovingly remembered by: his sons, Roger (the late Sandy) of Palos; and Clifford (Dana) of Bloomington, Illinois; his grandchildren, Connor (Anna) and Tracey; his dear sister-in-law, Annette Weidner; and numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, other friends and relatives.