‘Doc’ Soladay, Fulton

Glenn E. “Doc” Soladay, 90, Fulton, died Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013, at Firesteel Health Care, Mitchell.

He was born on June 21, 1922.

Funeral services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, Alexandria. Burial will be in Graceland Cemetery, Fulton, with military rites.

Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. today at Will Funeral Chapel, Mitchell, with a 7 p.m. Scripture service.

Glenn E. “Doc” Soladay was born on a farm near Fulton to Earl and Minnie (Bohm) Soladay.

He was educated at country schools and graduated from Fulton High School in 1940.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army in September 1940, serving in Battery B of the 147th Field Artillery.

According to The Coyotes: A History of The South Dakota National Guard, by Richard Cropp, “The South Dakota National Guard, called up in November 1940 and in February 1941, furnished 2,263 officers and men to the Army of the United States. The 147th Field Artillery regiment was in the first American Expeditionary Force into the Pacific, being some 1,500 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor on the day the Japanese-American hostilities began.”

The 147th was involved in the defense of Port Darwin, Australia, when it was attacked on Feb. 19, 1942, by the same Japanese task force that had struck Pearl Harbor, and spent the rest of the war in Australia and New Guinea.

Doc was honorably discharged from the Army in August 1945 and returned to Fulton.

He and Lois Licht were married on April 2, 1949.

He worked for his uncle, G. A. Soladay, in the International Harvester dealership in Fulton, then began a long career of service in the Fulton Post Office in May 1957.

Lois served as the postal clerk. Doc and Lois were active in the S.D. League of Postmasters and retired together from the Fulton Post Office in 1990.

Doc remained in the S.D. National Guard, served a term as president of the Officers’ Association and retired from the Guard in 1984 as a CW-4.

Doc joined the American Legion in South Dakota after World War II, and was active in FFE Post No. 85 for the rest of his life.

After retiring from the post office, he served Hanson County as emergency and disaster services coordinator and veterans’ service officer.

Doc’s faith was central to his life. He was confirmed and baptized as an adult in the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod, was a member of St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Alexandria, and served in a number of church offices over the years.

In 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the LCMS relief organization, Orphan Grain Train, was started in response to pleas for help from the newly-freed people of Eastern Europe.

OGT’s mission was to provide food, clothing and medicines, as well as the vital spiritual food of the saving Gospel of Christ to those in need.

Doc was part of a corps of OGT workers who travelled to Latvia, restoring facilities for living, pastoral training and a broadcast center for the Lutheran Hour.

Doc is survived by his wife, Lois; sister-in-law, Beverley Soladay; daughter, Liz Soladay; and daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Danl Wipf.

He was preceded in death by his parents; brothers: Robert and Harold, both also World War II veterans; cherished nieces and nephews, and a host of cherished neighbors and friends.

We rejoice that his baptismal grace sustained him in this life and into eternal life with all the saints in light.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials to the Orphan Grain Train (www.OGT.org) or to the scholarship of your choice.

Tags: obituaries, fulton