September 4, 1928 – June 12, 2024
William (Bill) Louis O’Daly was born in Los Angeles on September 4, 1928, at 11:48 a.m., the first child of William Corella O’Daly and Mary Catalina (Bastian) O’Daly. William C. was a mechanic at the Los Angeles Gas & Electric Company and Catalina a homemaker. Over the years, following Bill came five brothers and a sister. Bill grew up in a series of small rental apartments and homes in East Los Angeles until Catalina decided, with a growing family, a permanent home was needed. William C. and Catalina saw advertised in the local paper a new development of homes. They scraped the funds together and managed to buy a home of their own on Via Corona, where the family remained for many years.
Bill was an excellent student and received a scholarship to Loyola High School in West Los Angeles. Attending Loyola required a long daily commute from the family’s home in East L.A., where he rode the light rail system that existed at that time. He continued to excel at school, played on the Loyola football team, and fought on the boxing team. As Bill’s high school career was drawing to a close, he received a scholarship to attend Loyola University of Los Angeles. By that time, William C. had purchased a used English Ford for Bill. While the Ford had some deficiencies, including lacking floorboards (eventually remedied by hammering into place some plywood planks), the commute to the westside became less time consuming.
Although Bill gave up football while at Loyola U., he was awarded the Golden Gloves designation. He continued to box with noted proficiency until the day, as Bill himself would point out, he was punched in the face so hard by an opponent that he felt it was time to hang up his gloves and fully concentrate on his studies and one other endeavor.
That other endeavor was winning the affections of Madeline May Morabito, a student at UCLA. Bill met Madeline at a Theta Phi Alpha Sorority dance. As students at all-male Loyola, Bill and his classmates had to make female social connections outside the boundaries of the university. The Theta Phi Catholic sorority offered promising prospects.
Bill and Madeline married on August 26, 1950, when Bill was 21 and still a senior at Loyola. Madeline was 22 and had recently graduated from UCLA. Bill soon received his BS degree in Engineering and the newly married couple settled into an apartment in West L.A. A little over a year later, their first child, William A., was born, followed in the next few years by Daniel P. and Deborah Ann.
In 1955, Bill designed the family’s first house, located in Northridge in the San Fernando Valley. In 1958, Bill and Madeline were among the founding families of Our Lady of Lourdes parish, which formed the centerpiece of Bill’s and Madeline’s life for over 50 years. In 1966, Bill and Madeline purchased a home under construction in a newer section of Northridge. Being the engineer that he was, Bill made certain improvements to the design, including mapping out a circular, in-ground swimming pool that was unique for the area at that time.
Bill enjoyed a distinguished career as a professional civil and mechanical engineer, working extensively in the aerospace and defense industry. This included a notable turn at Rocketdyne, the maker of the massive booster rockets for the Saturn V lifter. From time to time, rocket engine tests would be fired by
Rocketdyne in the Santa Susana Mountains, which could be heard by the family in the valley below, bringing a sense of pride in Dad’s important work. He also was the Facilities Engineer for the first desalination plant in California, located in Oxnard, as well as for a geothermal power-generation plant in Sonoma County. Bill’s last employment was an extended period with the Hughes Aircraft Company, where he was the Department Manager of the corporate facilities group. In this capacity, Bill oversaw the construction of an ultra-modern engineering and manufacturing facility for the Hughes EDSG business unit in El Segundo.
Bill is survived by his youngest siblings, Richard and Mary, his three children, eight grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. He was a loving husband, father, and brother and will be sorely missed.
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