William Brock

1928 - 2017

William Brock

Lawton, OK

Memorial service for William Robert Brock will be 2:00 p.m. Monday in Becker-Rabon Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Dr. John F. Helgeson, Interim Pastor, First Presbyterian Church officiating.

Burial with military honors will follow in Highland Cemetery. William Robert Brock died Monday night, May 15, 2017, at the age of 88. He was born June 12, 1928 in Lawton, Oklahoma, the middle son of Max and LoRene Brock.  At the age of eighteen he graduated from Lawton High School at which time he was already beginning to show the signs of a writing career. 

He attended classes at Cameron Collage following graduation before deciding to apply to the Naval Air Academy in Pensacola Florida. He was accepted and received his wings as a pilot in multi-engine planes. He was briefly assigned to the Admirals staff and stationed in Hawaii at the beginning of the Korean conflict.  As the war progressed he joined the crew of the air-craft carrier VALLY FORGE and became a helicopter pilot, earning several medals for his rescue work of recovering downed pilots in North Korean waters.

In 1950 he entered the Naval Reserves where his finished out his Naval Reserve commitments. Returning to Lawton and Cameron College, he transferred to Oklahoma University where he earned a degree in journalism.  In the following years he entered the publishing world working in several different magazines as contributor as well as editor.  It was at this period of his life that he met Ingrid Stemmler.  They got married and enjoyed fifty plus years together before Ingrid's death in 2012. After their marriage Bill continued to work in the field of writing as they moved to Corpus Christi, Texas. Bill loved to be near the ocean, even until his last days.  In Corpus Christi Ingrid acquired a job at a prominent law office and Bill continued to work as a free-lance writer.

Due to poor health Bill moved back to Lawton in 2016 and took up residency in the Brookridge Retirement Community. He is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Dr. James H. and Beverly Brock, Lawton; nieces and nephews, Rene Brock Fuller and husband Don, Herndon, Virginia, Steven Brock, Lawton, Phillip William Brock, Los Angeles, California, Debra Lyn Brock, Lawton and Dr. Barry Joe Brock and wife Mary, New Wales, Pennsylvania; and many friends in Corpus Christi and Lawton. His wife, parents, brother and sister-in-law, Max O. Brock Jr. and Ellen, and a nephew, Tommy Max Brock, preceded him in death. Memorial contributions may be made to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, 825 N.E. 13th Street Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73104.