A Celebration of Life for Wilfred D. ‘Willie’ Hadl, 77, Lawrence, will be at 2 pm Saturday at Centenary United Methodist Church, with Pastor Dan Norwood officiating. A visitation will follow the service at the church. Willie died Monday, Apr. 18, 2016, at Pioneer Ridge Retirement Community.
He was born Oct. 22, 1938, in Lawrence, the son of Paul Henry and E. Pearl Smoots Hadl. He attended a one-room grade school in Eudora, and graduated from Eudora High School. He served in the United States Navy from 1959-63, aboard the USS Kearsarge. His unit assisted in the recovery of the Apollo space module after splashdown with Astronaut Wally Schirra aboard. Willie was a maintenance electrician for Westar Energy, and retired in 1995 after 32 years of service. He was active in Boy Scouts troop 59 and the Kanwaka 4H club, where he served as the electricity project lead. He was the first president of the Eudora 4H club. He was a member of Centenary United Methodist Church, and the Westar Energy Retirees Board. He enjoyed geography and American history, and helped write the Hadl family ancestry.
Willie married Connie Tevis on Sept. 5, 1964, in Topeka. She survives of the home. Other survivors include two sons, Darren D. Hadl, Lawrence, and Cory C. Hadl, Colorado. He was preceded in death by a sister, Velma Jane Hadl.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions are suggested to Centenary United Methodist Church, 245 N. 4th St., Lawrence, KS, 66044.
