Darwin Vance was a rocket scientist, a fighter pilot, a computer engineer, a small

business man, a gifted furniture builder, husband to Bettye Vance for 70 years, father for

68 years and grandfather and great grandfather to many children.

Darwin Ray Vance was born 2/11/32 and passed away 2/14/25. In 93 years he

experienced some of the world’s highest drama and succeeded at being many things in

contributing to some of the world’s greatest successes.

He was born during the Great Depression, saw young men leave for WW2, stars to be

later hung in their mothers’ windows. He saw neighbors infected with polio then

decades later, stood in line for its vaccine with his children.

He built and flew model airplanes with his best friend, Jack Wertz, communed with God

through the Methodist Church, achieved grades good enough to be accepted into

Indiana University, and maintained them to graduate and enter the Air Force with a

bachelor’s in science.

He was actually studying pre-med, planning to partner with his Father’s best pal, a

dentist. A draft notice would’ve taken him from college and sent him to Korea but the

board deferred him one year to finish a degree. Mathematics was the one he could

complete in two semesters and he did, grabbing his diploma a few weeks after the

Korean conflict defused. An Air Force ROTC student for his entire academic career, he

went on to serve in the Air Force and train as a pilot. They sent him to North Carolina for

flight training.

Before that, in 1954 he married Bettye Keziah Young, a high school classmate in

Mishawaka. His first son, Randy was born while Darwin was on duty in Lubbock, Texas

in 1956 and his daughter Cyndi was born in California 18 months later.

With several hundred flying hours under his wing, AFIB materialized in his heart. The Air

Force said he could continue to fly, but it might be dangerous. With a wife and two kids

to care for, Darwin opted out of flight school.

Instead, the Air Force put him in computer programming school when the iPhone you

use today took up a downtown city block. Apparently, he was good at it. The Air Force

wanted to send him to Stanford for continued study. He declined, in spite of his best Air

Force buddy Pete Rawlings, coaxing him to stay in. Darwin eventually returned to his

home town of Mishawaka, Indiana. He worked for Bendix and 

Studebaker before accepting a better job at General Mills in Minneapolis.

Soon, Sonoky Mobil Oil in New York came looking for him. Mobil Oil led to IT&T and that

led to the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, where Darwin got his rocket creds

helping develop communications and data processing systems that would be used

during the Apollo project. He met Werner Von Braun, the controversial German V-2

rocket engineer who kept the Apollo project on track.

Dad bought a boat in Huntsville and it was always a part of family life. Then Sears and

Roebuck called. They were ramping up their catalog order business and wanted to

automate it. That was a six year project that kept the family in the Suburbs of Chicago.

The boat spent most of that time in the garage.

Dad was wearying of corporate world.

Because of our enjoyment of boating and fishing, we spent a day every year going

either to boat shows or sportsmans’ shows to get information on resorts, marinas and

recreational areas. Darwin and his father shared a dream of running a resort. Randy

liked that too and wanted to be guide, fishermen and outdoor writer.

A year and a half sidebar in Pittsburg finished Darwin off for corporate America. He

asked Randy to pull the boat show brochure box and find a few realtors in Lake of the

Ozarks to show us resorts. Randy was 15, wrote out the letters on school paper and

sent them to the realtors. A few months later, we were leaving the Frank Loyd Wright

home in Pittsburg and heading to the Ozarks with a pair of UHaul trucks in convoy.

Darwin’s parents wanted to go as well.

Brent was happy enough to go along, but sister Cyndi was not a small town girl. She

adapted but wasn’t initially happy about having to. Brent and I spent the first summer

there sleeping on cots in a commercial utility room with a hole in the floor through which

you could see the ground. That winter Darwin and his father built an addition to the

owner’s quarters that included a new master suite, converted the laundry room to a new

kitchen and bedrooms for me, Brent and Cyndi.

We put in a new double wide trailer for my Dad’s parents and all of us worked together

to keep the place running and make a profit. Randy ran the boat rental dock, sold gas

and managed slips. The rental boat was the one bought in Alabama, a 15-foot Starcraft

with a 75 horsepower Johnson. That rental boat paid college tuition for Randy.

Around 1980 Darwin rekindled his relationship with flying and bought a Piper Archer,

equipped it with advanced navionics and began to fly around the country. Chicago,

Panama City, Branson, Springfield and other destinations in the Ozarks.

Darwin, Bettye and his parents ran that resort until 1977 or ’79, sold it and bought a

different, larger one across the lake. He and Bettye ran that with his father’s help and

Randy on summers during college. Eventually, Randy entered the business with them

and stayed on until it was sold in around 1990.

By then, Randy was working in PR at Bass Pro Shops. Brent was working in computers

in Kansas City and Cyndi was married and living in Atlanta.

Retirement took Darwin and Bettye to Spring Hill, Florida where they eventually bought

a home in the golf and country club community. Dad turned his spare time into building

fine furniture, much of it still in his home and more of it in his kids’ or neighbors’ homes.

Having put crown molding in areas of his home, neighbors saw it and wondered how

they could do it. Dad did it for them for little more than the cost of materials. Many of the

homes in their Prince Charles Court village have his handiwork in their décor.

Dad golfed two or three times a week until his heart troubles denied him the strength to

enjoy the game.

He still enjoyed watching sports, keeping up with his children and grand children and

enjoying Bettye’s company. He didn’t travel much for the past 5 years, though he did

make one trip to see a farm in Georgia Randy and his wife bought.

In 2023 he fell in his living room, breaking a vertebra in his neck and fracturing the leg

with a knee implant. He battled his way back to continue to enjoy time with friends and

family, but never fully recovered his strength.

Darwin left behind his wife of 70 years, Bettye, Sons Randy and Brent and many friends

who he treasured during his time with us.