Lt. Colonel Marvin Dee Meadows (USAF, retired) passed away December 6, 2019 in Bradenton, Fla. Colonel Meadows was born June 9, 1927 in Pattonsburg, Mo., to Truman and Mabel Meadows.
Marvin grew up on his family’s farm in Gilman City, Mo. and graduated from Gilman City High School in 1945, where he made the All-State basketball team as a senior. He credited his lifelong self-reliance and independence to his farm upbringing in Missouri. In 1949, he married June DeWitt of Gilman City, Mo. with whom they raised their two children: Allen, born in 1954 in Belleville, Ill., and Marva, born in 1958 in Chaumont, France.
In 1949 he enrolled at Iowa State College where he majored in engineering. After two years, he was drafted into the US Air Force in 1951 as a basic airman, where he quickly rose to sergeant. He was accepted into Officer’s Training School and commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the US Air Force in 1953. While in the Air Force, he completed advanced training in communications and electronics. In 1958, he was assigned to Oklahoma State University to complete his engineering degree. He would go on to supervise the installation and operation of air traffic control systems for the Air Force around the world. Col. Meadows’ stations included Chaumont, France, Okinawa, Japan, Anchorage, Alaska, Saigon, Vietnam, Mekong River, Thailand, and finally, Boston, Massachusetts. An accomplished communications engineer for the Air Force, he was awarded the Bronze Star medal in 1975. He retired from the Air Force in 1978 after 28 years of service. Marvin moved to Sarasota, Fla., for an active life of boating and sports.
Sparked by his global stations in the Air Force, Marvin continued to travel all over the world in his retirement, enjoying the different foods, peoples, and cultures the world has to offer. Food was Marvin’s lifelong passion. Through his travels during his service in the Air Force and in his retirement, he learned different cuisines, ingredients, and methods of preparation. Marvin especially credits his time in France and Japan as being especially influential to his tastes and culinary education. He learned to cook snails, and meats cooked in wine, including wild boar, rabbit, and goose. Anyone who was lucky enough to enjoy Marvin’s food can attest to his passion and talent for cooking. Col. Meadows is survived by his wife of 21 years, Joyce Meadows of Bradenton, Fla., two children, Allen Dee of Los Angeles and Marva Ann of Indianapolis, four grandchildren, Christopher, Mackenzie, Madeleine, and Marissa, and a sister, Linda Truitt of Overland Park, Kan. He was preceded in death by a brother, Kenneth, of Indianapolis. He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.