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Samuel Heywood Oakley
1914 - 2001 (87 years)-
Name Samuel Heywood Oakley Birth 4 Apr 1914 Berkeley, Alameda, California 
Gender Male Death 21 Jul 2001 Davis, Yolo, California Burial Oakland, Alameda, California Person ID I27169 Scudder Last Modified 4 Dec 2006
Father John Roscoe Oakley, b. 29 Aug 1861, Oakland, Alameda, California d. 2 Feb 1935, Berkeley, Alameda, California (Age 73 years) Mother Amy Hannah Heywood, b. 21 Sep 1876, Berkeley, Alameda, California d. 1 Sep 1940, Berkeley, Alameda, California (Age 63 years) Marriage 16 Oct 1901 Berkeley, Alameda, California Family ID F9460 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Elsie-Maye Bilyeu, b. 14 May 1916, San Francisco, San Francisco, California d. 6 Oct 2002, Davis, Yolo, California (Age 86 years) Marriage 22 Nov 1939 Berkeley, Alameda, California Children 1. P. Oakley 2. J.B. Oakley Family ID F9461 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 3 Mar 2024
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Notes - After graduating from Berkeley High School and UC Berkeley, from which he received a bachelor's degree in 1935, Samuel joined the Standard Oil Co. of California. Although he was exempt from the draft as a married man, then 28 years of age, he enlisted as a private in the Army in June 1942. After basic training he was selected for Officer's Candidate School, and during his 2 1/2 years in the European theater of operations he rose to the rank of first lieutenant in charge of a company in a replacement battalion of the 9th Army.
After a brief return to civilian life, Samuel was selected for a commission in the transportation corps of the regular Army, in which he served from 1947 until his retirement in 1964. As an Army officer he received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1949, writing a thesis on centralized traffic control systems for railroads that established him as an expert in that field.
During his career Samuel served for three years in Japan during the Korean War and for several months on a ship near Beirut during the Lebanon crisis of 1958 in his capacity as the Army's liaison to the commander in chief, Naval Elements Mediterranean. For that position he was based in London, where he was stationed from 1957 through 1959. He later served as executive officer and deputy chief of staff in the headquarters of the U.S. Army's Terminal Command - Pacific, first at Fort Mason in San Francisco, and later at the Oakland Army Terminal in Oakland.
Samuel's retirement in 1964 was voluntary. He had been promoted to full colonel, contingent on accepting command of the Army's port at Inchon, Korea. He declined the post for family reasons. For more than five of his 22 years of service he had been separated from his family, and family members were then barred from accompanying military personnel to Korea.
Soon after, Samuel returned to Oakland Army Base to serve as public affairs officer and as a transportation analyst for the Department of Defense. From 1965 until his final retirement in 1976, he authored a widely circulated newsletter on military-related ship movements throughout the Pacific region.
From 1959 until 1991, Samuel lived in his hometown of Berkeley. He and his wife moved to Davis in 1991 and to Woodland in 1995. As his condition deteriorated, he was lovingly cared for by the staff of Cottonwood Healthcare Center in Woodland, and in his final days by Yolo Hospice.
- After graduating from Berkeley High School and UC Berkeley, from which he received a bachelor's degree in 1935, Samuel joined the Standard Oil Co. of California. Although he was exempt from the draft as a married man, then 28 years of age, he enlisted as a private in the Army in June 1942. After basic training he was selected for Officer's Candidate School, and during his 2 1/2 years in the European theater of operations he rose to the rank of first lieutenant in charge of a company in a replacement battalion of the 9th Army.