Clyde K. O’Dowd was born on February 26, 1923 and died April 1, 2014 at 10 PM in Huntsville, Alabama where he was a longtime resident. He was born in Redondo Beach, California during the exciting times after World War I that many historians have called the ‘Roaring Twenties’. His father, Frank O’Dowd, was ballroom dancer and partner in a Vaudeville dance duo. His mother Madgel O’Dowd (Lucas), was a beauty queen and also a dancer from Redondo Beach, California. Clyde was named for his father’s dancing partner. He had two siblings, now deceased, a sister—Betty Held, and a brother—William O’Dowd, architect and founder of the California architectural firm Black & O’Dowd.
Clyde married Geraldyne Slaughter (always known as Jerre) soon after he returned from service in World War II. He met her at the D&D Drug store in Redondo Beach where his mother ‘Madge’ worked alongside Jerre. She had come to California with her two sisters in the great migration of Okies after the Dust Bowl.
The 1930’s were hard times, and Clyde had to go work for the family at 13. He sold newspapers to oilmen working on Signal Hill in Long Beach California, and then later on, to gamblers on their way out to the ship ‘Rex’, moored just outside the three mile limit off Redondo Beach. Clyde knew and understood that winners would give generous tips to a hardworking, young newspaper boy, who was always there to meet and greet them with the daily news at the Redondo Pier. Eventually, Clyde graduated from Redondo Beach High School, where they called him Pee Wee because of his size. To compensate he became a champion swimmer, lifeguard, table tennis champion and billiards player. He also loved to surf and could be seen dragging his foot in the water to turn the long redwood surfboards that long ago had no fins. His favorite surf spot was ‘The Cove’, in Palos Verdes, California.
At 17, he got a job working as an ‘expediter’ in the Tooling Department of Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica. Jobs were hard to come by. Then came Pearl Harbor. So he and his buddy went down to the recruiting office to volunteer, but the Navy office was closed and by chance they found the Coast Guard Office open. As a result, he served the war years as a Coast Guard radioman, first class. He was stationed near Pepeekeo, on the Big Island of Hawaii, and because of his excellent work with short wave radio, he helped save men stranded aboard a sinking ship in the Aleutians.
By April 1946 he was a ‘family man’ living in Redondo Beach and once again at Douglas Aircraft where he was re-hired after the War. He remained at Douglas for thirty six years, rising steadily in talent and experience until eventually he became one of the staff experts in ‘Configuration Management’ where he worked on the S-IVB stage of the Saturn V moon rocket, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) and other top secret projects which required him to live and work for five years on Kwajalein Island in the Pacific Ocean where everyday he would take a helicopter to work on Roi-Namur, a nearby island. Afterwards, he went to work for Teledyne Brown in Cape Canaveral, Florida. In 1981, he moved to Huntsville, Alabama, staying in Configuration Management, and finished his career with Teledyne Brown.
Clyde’s comfortable home in Huntsville faced the third hole of the Valley Hill Golf Course, where he could be seen teeing off with his regular foursome buddies almost every morning at 7:30AM, followed by lunch at the Clubhouse. No one ever loved golf more. He made golf clubs for his friends.
After his lovely wife Jerre passed away in 2009, he moved to his retirement apartment in Redstone Village in Huntsville where he had many good friends.
He is survived by two sons, Patrick O’Dowd, historian, curator, publisher and gallery owner in Santa Barbara and now Monterey, California, and Dennis O’Dowd, living in Melbourne, Australia — former professor of ecology at Monash University. Clyde has four grandchildren, Barbara, Seanessey-Frank, Keely and Mary. And he has seven great-grandchildren, Annika-Marie, Ishod, Kailey-May, Ulrika, Ashley-Marie, Philomena, and the recently born, Aedan Michael Francis O’Dowd. All the great-grand-children live in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Benevolent Fund, c/o Redstone Village, 12000 Turnmeyer Drive, Huntsville, Alabama 35803.
