Obituary of William Riddell

Life Legacy William Wallace Riddell, 88, of Salinas, passed away unexpectedly Tuesday, May 26, 2015. Bill was born May 14, 1927 in Billings, MT; he was the youngest of his family, with two older sisters, the three of whom were first generation Americans; their parents having emigrated from Scotland. Bill grew up in Billings, where he was active in school sports and also joined the Boy Scouts and achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. He enlisted in the Army Reserves in 1944 and was sent to the University of Idaho in Moscow to study engineering. He was then transferred to the regular Army Air Corps and made several trips to Central and South America. In 1946, he was recruited to the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corp where he served until his retirement in August of 1965. During that time, he spent time at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey learning Japanese. Between deployments, he met and married Lorraine Batyi in 1952. Lorraine had a daughter, Barbara, from a previous marriage and in 1955, the Riddells were deployed to Japan. They spent almost three years there before Bill was assigned to Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, IN. It was there that the couple’s other two daughters, Diane and Sharon, were born. In 1963, with the advent of the war in Vietnam, Bill was transferred to Fort Ord and the Defense Language Institute once again to learn Vietnamese. While stationed there, their son William (Bill) was born. In December of that year, Bill was sent to Vietnam, while the family moved to Salinas. In August of 1965, after a brief stint at Fort Riley, KS, Bill retired from the Army and the family returned to Salinas. Bill then worked for JCPenny, the Post Office and finished with Salinas Valley Ford, retiring from there after 19 years. Working on cars, building model trains and airplanes and tying fishing flies were hobbies he enjoyed. In his later years, he became serious about cooking as well. Bill is survived by his wife of 62 years, Lorraine, of Salinas, daughters Diane Riddell, of Salinas; Sharon Teague (David), of Coalinga; son Bill (Mirna) of Greenfield and two grandsons, Nathan, 14 and Ryan, 12, also of Greenfield. Per his request, there will be no funeral service; however a burial service with Military Honors will be held for family and close friends on Monday, June 1 at 1:00 pm at Garden of Memories Cemetery, 850 Abbott St., Salinas. In lieu of flowers, the family requests any donations be made to groups assisting veterans, if so desired.