Obituary for Rod Martindale

Ponca City Now - April 10, 2014 12:00 am

Paul Rodney Martindale (Rod) was born July 29, 1928, to A.C. and Chlorice Martindale at Riverside Clinic, Blackwell, Oklahoma. He attended Lincoln Grade School, Lovett Junior High and Blackwell High School earning multiple athletic letters in basketball and football. He continued his education at NOC and Oklahoma A & M.

In 1948, he married Jo Ann Via of Blackwell and worked for Hoyt Oil Company in Dewey, Oklahoma. In January of 1951, he was employed by Phillips Petroleum Company in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. In 1977, they moved to Littleton, Colorado, where he retired in 1985 as Senior Crude Oil Buyer for the Rocky Mountain Region for Phillips. They moved to Stillwater in 1993.

Rod was a highly successful Little League Baseball coach while in Bartlesville, and later served as President of the American Legion Baseball Bill Doenges Ford Injuns. He successfully coached AAU basketball teams as well as the first wrestling program at the Boys Club that produced Bartlesville’s first high school state champion. He was an active member of First Baptist Church and raised three sons and one daughter.

Rod enjoyed golf, gardening, dominoes and cards and traveled extensively during his retirement while volunteering at Judith Karman Hospice and serving as President of the Stillwater Dance Club. He was an avid OSU sports fan.

He is preceded in death by his mother and father; two sisters, Inez Martindale Ewing and Carol Sue Martindale Grider; and two brothers, Joe D. Martindale and Rob D. Martindale.

He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Jo Ann Martindale; three sons, L. Craig Martindale of Toledo, Ohio, A. Kent Martindale of Glencoe, Oklahoma, R. Kirk Martindale of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and one daughter and son-in-law, Robert and Kerry Ann Wagoner of Yukon, Oklahoma as well as 11 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.

A memorial will be held in Stillwater in the chapel at Golden Oaks Village on Saturday, April 12th at 10:30 a.m. with Rev. L. Craig Martindale and Rev. Robert R. Wagoner officiating. Graveside services will be held in the Blackwell Cemetery at 3:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you donate to the Parkinson Foundation of Oklahoma, 720 W. Wilshire Blvd. – 101C, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73116.