Melvin Gary Wode “Wode” passed away the morning of September 12, 2024 at the age of 95.
He was born on May 28, 1929, in Collinsville, Oklahoma to Gus and Violet Wode. He had an older sister, Eloise. He worked on the family farm through school and graduated from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater with a degree in chemical engineering. He met Patsy Faye Palmer at the University and they married on September 10, 1948, at the age of 19. They were blessed with three children, Gary Ken, Michael Muryl, and Susan Raeann.
After finishing College he enlisted in the army, working as an electrical technician during the Korean War and taught new recruits electronics. He ended his military career as a Captain.
This sparked Wode’s passion for electrical engineering which culminated in a career with first Teledyne Brown, and then Boeing Aerospace in Huntsville AL.
Early in his career, he helped with the development of high-altitude rockets for space. Additionally, Wode worked on how to detect, with a TV monitoring system, a hydrogen flame burning in a bright sunlight environment.
His last project involved developing the power supply for a lab on the NASA international space station. He retired at the age of 72.
His son, Michael, passed in 1982 from a car accident and his wife, Pat, passed away suddenly following a heart attack in 1998.
Wode married Marjorie Watson in 2004 in Huntsville, AL. They met while browsing in the frozen food aisle at the local grocery store. They enjoyed eating out, traveling and spending time with family and friends. Marjorie passed in 2021.
Melvin was an avid reader of almost anything and a sudoku and Mahjong player. His elder son, Gary, also an engineer, passed away in 2007.
Wode leaves behind his daughter, Susan Wode, of Madison, a granddaughter, Courtney Choe of Oceanside California, and three great-grandchildren, as well as Marjorie’s children, Buff Gibbons and Graham Watson.
A graveside service will be held on Monday, September 16 at 11:00 am at Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.
