Mass of Christian Burial for William Omafray age 92 of Mobridge will be at 11 AM, Saturday, April 2, 2016 at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Mobridge. Burial will be at Greenwood Cemetery under the direction of Kesling Funeral Home of Mobridge. A Rosary service will be at the church at 7:30 PM Friday.

WILLIAM BASIL OMAFRAY (1923-2016)

William (Bill) Basil Omafray passed away peacefully in his sleep March 26, 2016 in Mobridge, SD. He was 92 years old.
Bill was born in 1923 to Catherine and Fred Omafray in Wilton, ND. He was their oldest son.

He graduated from Wilton High School where he lettered in both football and track. He and his sister Genevieve studied and competed in traditional Ukrainian dance.

He attended North Dakota State College of Science earning a technical engineer degree. He moved to Mobridge in 1946 to accept an electrical draftsman job opening at Montana Dakota Utility (MDU) and worked there for 42 years. During that time he also worked as a surveyor. He retired from MDU in 1988 as an assistant electrical engineer.
He married JoAnn Boehmer on August 16, 1956 in Parkston, SD, and together they had six children.

He served as a Mobridge EMT for 30 years starting in 1973 working weekends. After retiring from MDU, he worked as a full-time EMT. It's estimated that he completed 600 transfers by ambulance to various regional hospitals. He even made the AP News Wire for saving a patient's life by driving through a blizzard. Bill also taught CPR classes.

Bill was always hard working. After serving as an EMT for 30 years, he drove a school bus for Wakpala Public School for nine years. He spoke favorably of this work often and enjoyed the kids on his bus.
Bill was a very active Mobridge community member. In his earlier years he was a Boy Scout troop leader and a member of the Jaycees. He was a long-time serving member of the Knights of Columbus and St. Joseph Catholic Church as a Lay Eucharistic Minister, a server, a reader, a choir member and sacristan.

He was known for many things including his BBQ sauce and his spicy pickles but he was, perhaps, most known for his love of gardening. As a masterful gardener of many vegetables – tomatoes, squash, potatoes, beets, carrots, corn, onions, garlic – he won many horticultural awards. He was very proud of his family's apple tree that he had mail ordered from the University of Minnesota. He nurtured it from a small whip into a prolific bearer of delicious fruit and he led the tree's annual harvest with family and friends. He loved to share tips and successes he had.

Bill is survived by his wife JoAnn; his six children Michael (Gabriele Odenwald), Mary Jo, Marjorie (Rick Dengler), Mark, Marcia (Tom Meer) and Melissa Townley (Mike); nine grandchildren Chelsea, Griffin, Roman and Grayson Ollar, Kathleen Omafray-Odenwald, Sophie and Camille Omafray-Dengler and Isabelle and Gus Townley; brothers Martin and Macdonald, sister Genevieve Johnson (Jack), and sister-in-law Carol Omafray.

He is preceded in death by his parents, brother Paul and sister Eva Fedora (Joe).