Funeral services for Walter Morgan Wondrack, 90, Lawrence, will be 2:00 p.m. Monday, January 7, 2019, at Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home. Burial will be at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.
Mr. Wondrack died Saturday, December 29, 2018, at Brandon Woods at Alvamar. He was born August 8, 1928, in Washington D.C., the son of Walter John and Nina M. (White) Wondrack. He attended D.C. public schools and graduated from Eastern High School in 1946.
He enlisted in the Army and served in the First Calvary Division in Tokyo, during the early days of the occupation of Japan. He was discharged as a Sergeant and returned to D.C. and worked as a cartographic draftsman at the Coast and Geodetic Survey before enrolling at the University of Maryland, College Park in 1948 under the WWII G.I. Bill. Graduated in 1953 with a B.S. in Industrial Education and was named a distinguished graduate of the Air Force ROTC program. Offered and accepted regular (career) Air Force commission. He was trained as a B-29 radar bombardier. After deactivation of the B-29 fleet, he served as a navigator in the B-26 reconnaissance squadron in Japan and flew a number of classified missions from a base in Korea. He was assigned as commander of USAF Foreign Language Liaison Detachment at Ft. Meyer, VA providing administrative support for Air Force personnel attending various language schools under contracts in the D.C. area. He entered the University of Oklahoma, Norman graduate school under program of the Air Force Institute of Technology. He received a MBA with honors in 1968 and elected to Beta Gamma Sigma, the National Business Honorary.
He flew 75 combat missions over Vietnam in EB-66 Electronic Warfare Aircraft. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and four Air Medals. Assigned to a tactical wing in South Carolina, where he was a Training Squadron Commander and Wing Training Officer, and taught evening classes in business as a faculty member of Golden Gate University’s Extension Program for civilian and military personnel in the area. He retired after 33 years of military service, following five years as Commander and Professor of Aerospace Studies of the Air Force ROTC at the University of Kansas, Lawrence with the rank of Colonel in 1979.
Post retirement positions included consulting work with a Lawrence based management consulting firm, Executive Secretary of the South Carolina Independent School Association based in Columbia, South Carolina, and Hearing Officer for the State of Kansas Hearing Appeals from property owners in Douglas, Leavenworth, and Johnson Counties.
He married Dorothy C. Jones of Staunton, VA in Washington D.C. on April 25, 1959. She passed away on September 11, 2012, after 53 years of marriage.
Marjorie Spilman; Brandywine, MD, the oldest of three younger sisters died in 2017.
Survivors include two sisters, Carol Wyman, Holland Point, MD, Miriam Enis, Delray Beach, FL. Four sons, Scott and wife Sheila, Walter and wife Michele, Christopher and partner Steve Hoyt, Jared and wife Julie. Grandchildren, Jordan Wondrack, Dallas, TX, Tyler Wondrack, Prairie Village, KS, Sean and Aidan Wondrack, and Sarah Conley all of Lawrence.
Friends may call from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Sunday at the funeral home. A visitation with the family will be 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Monday.
