Walter Updike

Services Held For Walter Updike

Mr. and Mrs. Bob Graves and Mr. and Mrs. Danny Graves of Douglas were in Newcastle Saturday where they attended funeral services for former Niobrara County resident Walter E. Updike at the First United Methodist Church at 2 p.m. Rev. John Olenyik officiated at the service. Burial was made in the Greenwood Cemetery with Masonic graveside rites.

Mr. Updike passed away Jan. 2, at the Valley Lutheran Hospital in Mesa, Ariz. He was born Sept. 30, 1904 at Canton, Kan. He attended school in Niobrara County and was a 1924 graduate of Lusk High School and attended Chadron College for a year. Updike worked in the Osage oil fields west of Newcastle. In 1934 Updike and two brothers, Wallace and N. S. Updike founded the Updike Brothers Oil Well Servicing. They incorporated the company in 1955.

On September 5, 1931 he married Dorothy Rogers. Updike moved from the Osage oil fields to Newcastle in 1947 and lived there since that time except for the winter months when the couple stayed at Mesa. He was an active member of the First United Methodist Church and served many years on the church board. He had also served on the School Dist, No. 3 board from 1943 to 1962 and on the Newcastle City Council.

Updike was a member of the Newcastle Masonic Lodge No. 13, the Sheridan Scottish Rite, Kalif Temple Shrine and the Newcastle Chapter, OES.

He is survived by his widow; two sons, Bob of Gillette and David "Bud" Updike of Newcastle; one daughter Mary Updike of Apache Junction, Ariz.; two brothers Wallace "Dutch" Updike of Conyers, Georgia and Ralph Updike of Newcastle; six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. A brother N. S. Updike and his parents preceded him in death.

Updike Brothers, Inc. have a branch well-servicing outfit here in Lance Creek.

Images & Attachments

Related/Linked Records