Bio

Willard Ray Heath was a stand-out football player, playing under legendary Missouri Valley College Head Coach Volney C. Ashford.  His final game, played the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor, was a 12-0 win over Rockhurst (Mo.) to end the 1941 season.  The win was the catalyst to the program’s historic 41-game unbeaten streak.  Heath was an all-conference selection as a lineman and was a member of the 1939 MCAU championship team, which finished 7-1 on the season.  In addition to his play on the football field, Heath also served as V-Club President for the 1941-42 academic year, and worked as the yearbook sports editor.

After graduating in 1942 with a degree in chemistry, Heath enlisted in the Navy, beginning at Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Waukegan, Ill.  He then went to Columbia (N.Y.) University, enrolling in the Officer Candidate School and was comissioned a Lieutenant Junior Grade on the USS Conner Destroyer in the Pacfic.  Heath saw action in the Pacific Theater of World War II in the Marshall Islands, Saipan, Guam and Borneo.  The Conner also played a significant role in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Phillipines.

After the war, Heath spent most of his working career with Allstate Insurance, working his way up through the company as an insurance salesman, winning multiple awards.

Heath met his wife, Helen Leitia Mead, at Missouri Valley College, and the two married in September of 1942.  They had two children together.  Heath passed away in 1965 at the age of 44 after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.