of Mabelvale, AR

October 21, 1921 - September 7, 2015

Boyd Winston Blythe, 93, of Mabelvale, Arkansas passed away Monday, September 7, 2015. Boyd was born on October 21, 1921 at Fort Gibson, Oklahoma to the late Robert Jackson Blythe and Carmen Buster Blythe.

He was preceded in death by his parents.

Survived by his wife of 25 years, Edith Blythe; and her daughter, Sheila Cannon and husband, James and their son, Logan; cousins, Tim, Jean, Kathy and Karen of Michigan.

When he was four years old, his parents moved to Chicago where his father was employed by a major railroad company. Though his family later experienced many hardships during the Depression years, his parents were concerned about his educational and cultural development.

The fact that his mother and two aunts were school teachers, no doubt influenced this thinking. His parents, aunts and uncles often took him to art galleries, museums, concerts, zoological parks, botanical gardens, scientific exhibits, and astronomical observatories. He learned to read at a very early age and never lost his love for reading.

During his early teenage years, he became interested in classical literatures, world history, archeology, anthropology, encyclopedias, National Geographics, technical and scientific journals.

While on business trips in later years of his life, he often visited public libraries and bookstores in major cities. He also had hundreds of volumes in a personal library that was kept updated with new publications through the years.

His education was interrupted a number of times. First, during our country's great economic depression; later, for four years during World War II, and again later due to family responsibilities. He attended four elementary schools, three high schools and four colleges and universities in five states.

Blythe earned degrees in both Architectural Engineering and Urban Studies. He also attended Curtis Wright Technical (Aviation) Institute in Glendale, California.

During World War II, Blythe was a member of the U.S. Air Force for almost four years. Part of this time he was stationed overseas at various island bases in the Pacific Ocean, where he served with an intelligence unit made up of combined Army, Air Force and Navy personnel.

Almost all of his professional career was spent in California, where he worked for architectural, engineering and construction firms that had offices and operations worldwide. At one time he worked on research and development studies and plans for early anti-missile defense systems, as well as some work on the Minute Man, International Ballistic Missile complexes. The anti-missile projects were much later dubbed ''Star Wars System'', by the news media. In 1969, Blythe was one of ten men sent to the Marshal Islands in the Pacific Ocean for a month, to check and coordinate plans for a huge missile test site.

For many years, Blythe worked on plans for a great variety of projects such as high-rise office buildings, hotels, hospitals, medical buildings, courthouses and correctional facilities, power stations, industrial buildings, government buildings, military defense structures, shipyards, harbor and dock facilities, and airfield complexes. Some of these structures were planned for other governments and built in other countries.

Blythe was a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars for over 50 years. He also was a member of the Little Rock Chapter of the Arkansas Archeology Society. He served as president of the society for two terms.

Memorial service will be held at Roller-Drummond Funeral Home, 10900 Interstate 30, Little Rock, Arkansas 72209 (501) 455-5800 on Saturday, September 12, 2015 at 1:00 p.m. with Brother Randy Hester officiating. A time of visitation will be immediately following the service.

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