Major Stanley Gordon Bullard (USAF - Retired)

Stanley Bullard was born on November 12, 1932, in Columbia, South Carolina. Raised in the middle of the Great Depression, he started with nothing. But with that nothing he did everything. The eldest of four kids, he left home and school before completing the tenth grade and worked as a manual laborer. A fighter his whole life, he became a professional boxer as a teenager. He enlisted in the Air Force in November 1949 at the age of seventeen years and two days. He served in Occupied Japan and in Korea. Lacking in formal education, but not brilliance, he took college courses at night and became an officer. He rose through the ranks and served his country by commanding and piloting a B-52 bomber plane in the Vietnam War. His crew flew a total of 63 combat missions. Retiring at the rank of Major, he and his crew earned multiple honors, including the Air Medal with two oak leaf clusters.

He traveled the world with his wife of 24 years, Rose Ann Pollan, as a wildlife photographer. They traveled to Mexico, Honduras, the Caribbean, the Galapagos Islands, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Antarctica, French Polynesia, Fiji, Australia, Tanzania, Kenya, and so many other far and distant lands.

In the midst of his service and travels, he also raised a family. He had three children by his first wife, Rosemary Campise: Michael Bullard (predeceased), Jeanne Arnold (Larry), and Patrick Bullard (Michelle). Known only somewhat ironically as “Grumpy,” he also loved his grandchildren: Jay Burke (Brenda), Riva Hardin (Dustin), James Buschow (Carolyn), Lauren Bruno (Nick), Taylor Bullard, and Ryan Bullard. At the end of his life, he also had the joy of five great-grandchildren. He shared his life with his three siblings: Barbara Jean Keel (predeceased), David Gregor Bullard (Brenda), and Deborah Adams (Charles). He was active in the Austin community as a member of the Downtown Rotary Club of Austin, the Military Officers Association of America, the Military Order of the World Wars, and the Gilbert & Sullivan Society.

To celebrate this most extraordinary of ordinary men, please join the family at Cook-Walden Funeral Home, 6100 North Lamar, Austin, Texas, at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, August 28, 2020. Services also will be streamed live for those unable to attend in person.