{"id":3017,"date":"2018-07-26T19:05:45","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T19:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/?page_id=3017"},"modified":"2018-07-28T20:56:46","modified_gmt":"2018-07-28T20:56:46","slug":"virgil-ethridge","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/people\/virgil-ethridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgil Ethridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virgil Ethridge was an acquaintance of Tom’s father, Dr. Cartmell. He was originally in pilot training with Tom, but washed out of pilot training, later becoming becoming a bombardier. He survived the war and died in 2014. His obituary (from the Whidbey News-Times) reads in part:<\/p>\n

\"Virgil<\/a>
Virgil William Ethridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Virgil William Ethridge passed away peacefully in his sleep at Aegis Lodge in Kirkland, Wash., on April 20 at the age of 91.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill was born April 14, 1923, in Baden Baden (Millersburg), Ill., to George and Selma Ethridge.<\/em><\/p>\n

Shortly after graduating from high school, Bill and two friends left Illinois and made their way to Los Angeles, where he found work at the Lockheed Aircraft plant.<\/em><\/p>\n

He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in late 1942 and was posted as an aviation cadet to LaGrande, Ore., in 1943.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here he met Mary Wagner and they were married shortly thereafter in Albuquerque, N.M. In August of 1944, Bill was deployed to England as a B-17 bombardier and his crew was shot down on just their third mission.<\/em><\/p>\n

He was a POW for nearly nine months, and was freed by the advance of Patton\u2019s tank corps through Germany.<\/em><\/p>\n

Upon his return to civilian life, Bill attended and graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in engineering.<\/em><\/p>\n

He became a facilities engineer for Continental Can, National Can, Tektronix and retired in 1978 as the maintenance manager for the Portland School District.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1979, Bill and Mary moved from Vancouver, Wash., to Whidbey Island, building their dream home on Scenic Heights Drive.<\/em><\/p>\n

Always eager to travel, the couple enjoyed many years of seeing parts of the U.S., Canada and Mexico by motor home and attending Elder Hostel programs in various countries.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill became involved in Kiwanis and through that organization was instrumental in founding the Whidbey Island Jazz Festival.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2001, Bill and Mary helped spearhead an effort to create an Island County Veteran\u2019s Memorial, which now stands at the Coupeville Law and Justice Center.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2005, they moved to the Captain Kinney House in Coupeville, where they greatly enjoyed the camaraderie of their close-knit neighborhood. Mary passed away in January of 2013.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill is survived by his brother, Carroll (wife Loretta); sister, Betty Lou (husband Don); daughter, Linda Caton (husband John); son, Doug (wife Sue); grandchildren, Alex Caton and Nick Caton (wife Julie); and great-granddaughter, Kaeldra Caton.<\/em><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virgil Ethridge was an acquaintance of Tom’s father, Dr. Cartmell. He was originally in pilot training with Tom, but washed out of pilot training, later becoming becoming a bombardier. He survived the war and died in 2014. His obituary (from the Whidbey News-Times) reads in part: Virgil William Ethridge passed away peacefully in his sleep … Continue reading Virgil Ethridge<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":55,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3017","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3017"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3030,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3017\/revisions\/3030"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/55"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}