This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/CV4.2ACEB/259 Message Board Post: Albuquerque Journal, September 16, 2003 Printed with permission 'Pappy' Never Lost Love for Golf By Barbara Chavez Journal Staff Writer When the old-timers who play regularly at Puerto Del Sol Golf Course started their round Friday, you can bet they were playing it for Pappy. William H. "Pappy" Owings, 97, died Sept. 11. Known as one of the city's oldest and most likable recreational golfers, Owings never got tired of playing golf. His daughter, Gale Owings, said her dad last played the week before he died. "My dad used to say that he would go back to photography when he got too old to golf," she said. "Well, he never got too old for golf." His friends, most of them members of the Old-Timers Golf Association and the crew and staff at Puerto del Sol, say Owings' always pleasant demeanor and quick wit made him fun to be around. One of his best friends, Mac Curry, recently lost his battle with cancer and since then, Owings had been slowing down, Gale Owings said. When Pappy was in his early 90s, the city of Albuquerque honored him with a membership card that allowed him to play all the city courses for free for the rest of his life. The staff at Puerto, where he played most of the time, had put up a sign on the best parking space in the lot that read: "Reserved: Don't Even Think of Parking in Pappy's Space." After hearing of Owings' death, Ray Hendrickson, who works the morning shift at Puerto when most of the old-timers play, said the staff tied a ribbon to the parking sign. "The golfers came in and they knew what the ribbon meant," said Hendrickson. "Pappy will be missed so much by so many of us. But we just know he's up there with Mac right now and those two are already arguing about who is going to tee off first." Besides his daughter, Owings is survived by his wife of more than 70 years, Margaret Owings. A love for golf started in 1934, when Owings was working for the phone company in Missouri. Owings worked for Southwest Bell in Missouri and later for Mountain Bell in Albuquerque after he moved here in 1950. While working for the phone company in Albuquerque, he also worked part time as a photographer. He set up Bill's Photo Services and developed and printed many of the news and drama photos for the University of New Mexico presses. For many of those years, he also worked in the photo archive department of UNM's Zimmerman Library, where he helped photograph newspapers that needed to be preserved on film. Owings was an enthusiastic reader of books on natural history. Many of the family's vacations were spent traveling across the country to see nature's wonders, Gale Owings said. "Dad always believed that doing things that kept you mentally alert went hand in hand with how you kept moving physically," she said. "I really think all of his interests, including the golf, photography and reading, kept him from truly getting old." Owings said one of her father's catch phrases at the course was, "It's hell getting old, so just don't do it." Gale Owings said she, her mom and aunt are having a memorial bench dedicated to her father being placed near the tee box at the second hole at Puerto del Sol. The family is requesting that friends who would like to honor her father do so by making a donation to the New Mexico Zoological Society. A graveside service will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Fairview Memorial Park, 700 Yale SE.