William Bernard Ogden was born April 18,1913 and passed away in Huntington Beach, CA on January 24, 1998 at the age of 85. The cause of death was aortic failure following a prolonged surgery at the Houston, TX Medical Center. Attalia (Tally) Ogden was born on April 17,1914 and died March 5, 2006 at the age of 92. Thora died on March 5, 1998. The cause of death for both was Cancer. We want to thank Bill's niece Patty Stevenson Porter and nephew Jim McDonald for sharing with us memories of Bill, Tally, Thora and R.O.E.S. You can thank them by signing the Ogden Guestbook leaving your thoughts.
Bill and Tally's 50th wedding anniversary in 1993. They married in 1943.
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How did William B. Ogden get to California?
Emma K. Jensen, the matriarchal strength of the family, brought her three daughters Patricia, Tally and Thora to America from England where she owned and operated successful boarding houses.
Bill was born in Maryland and attended and graduated from a Military School. He wrote music and poems and became a theater barker where he met Tally.
They entered America via Ellis Island and settled in New York. Emma then pursued her ability to run boarding houses and moved the family to a three-story home in Palisades Park, New Jersey and established another boarding house business. The daughters entered into a theatrical position with the Rocketts’ so were in show business where he met Tally.
He and Tally did not have children thus his great love of children, which was such a blessing to all of us the extended family kids.
Bill and Tally married and then he went off to war where he served in the Army signal Corps and taught electronics and was sent to China.
Thora the youngest sister was divorced. Tally had married Bill; Pat was married to Charles Stevenson. Emma decided to move us all to California so we did.
We moved to North Hollywood and then Emma bought property in Burbank California and built homes for Tally and Bill, Pat and Steve and the house Thora, Grandma, and I lived in.
When Bill and Charles were discharged they found out they should come to California so they did.
Pat and Steve began their new adventures, Pat was involved in private investigation and Steve (Charles) became a technical representative for an aircraft/aerospace firm. Bill and Tally were encouraged to use Bill’s great ability for teaching and his electronic background to find an avenue for a career. Thora and Emma continued to support boarders and child day care.
The start of R.O.E.S:
The FCC required a 1st Class Telephone license for repairs to be done on commercial radio and the new T.V. phenomena. While there were plenty of skilled technicians few had the required license to satisfy the FCC requirement, hence an opportunity for Bill.
When radio and TV stations had announcers that had the required license local technicians could perform the required repairs. Announcers could gain employment and higher wages if they had this license. He provided a solution with a class to teach announcers and technicians the required curriculum to obtain the license.
He made a proposal to the Don Martin School of Radio and TV Arts and they accepted. They were located in Hollywood and Bill with limited funds bought a Cushman motor scooter and drove to Hollywood from Burbank. This was a big commute in those days.
T.V. was booming and were doing many remote broadcasts during this time frame and if the announcers had the license the remote technicians could function, greater strength for Bills concept. This is where he taught Don Lomond and Jack Narz. Bill increased the scope of his program by adding the Fredric A Speers School of Radio Arts.
With two accidents on his scooter and great success in the concept, Tally and Bill decided to start their own business.
They opened the first R.O.E.S school in Burbank in 1949, not the one most people know of on Olive Ave.
The first school was an office building two miles away from the Olive AVE School; on the way home Bill and Tally would see the new school property and asked the owners who ran a holiday shop if it was for sale. The owners remembered this and sold the property to them. The property consisted of a house and work shop.
Tally and Bill built the new school in the house portion of the property but kept the workshop where Bill built the students desks for the school.
The school flourished and when they decided to move to Huntington Beach in 1966. This is where they retired in 1973. Bill still loved work and children and He created bowling leagues for the kids to participate in and made wood workings for the family.
R.O.E.S. Memories
By Jim McDonald, Bill's Nephew
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Bill, Tally and Thora rest at the Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona Del Mar, CA 9 miles south of Huntington Beach, CA. over looking the Pacific Ocean.
We greatly appreciate the contributions and help of Bill's niece Patty Porter and Bill's nephew Jim McDonald (Thora's son) enabling us to pay our respects and to bring back those precious memories in our lives many years ago. It was an incredible time that we will never forget. May you rest in peace!
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1995 cruise, one of 23 they enjoyed.
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Patty (Stevenson) Porter. Bill's niece who lives in Washington state.
Thora, Bill and Tally
More from Bill's nephew Jim McDonald
Huntington Beach, CA
January 25, 2019
Bill Major Surgery:
Bill developed aneurysms on this aortic artery, three to be exact, upper, mid, and lower all of which were a size that could lead to a rupture which would be catastrophic. His cardiologist suggested the we go to Houston medical Center and consult with Dr. Crawford the only surgeon who was doing the lower fix.
We started the journey and met with Dr. Crawford and his 19 teen member team in training and agreed to have the surgery.
Dr. Crawford was an amazing physician, since i was handling their finances the question of cost came up. His answer was simple whatever the insurance payed was the fee we never received a bill! WOW!
The surgery lasted over ten hours with Bill’s body temperature being lowered to 90 degrees F.
Bill then spent almost 3 months in intensive care recovering from the surgery because they could not get him off the respirator support due to his lung capacity. Probably caused by his smoking.
Finally we were ready to bring him home from Houston to Huntington Beach. When I went to check him out they printed his medical charges 3/4 inch of computer paper, thank God I had a no limit American Express Card so prepared for the worse looked at the total charges and were $431.54, I almost fainted.
Thank God for doctors and medical centers that were truly there to help people.
Tally and Thora stayed at a hotel that connected to the hospital by a walkway for the whole time I would fly in every week to be with them and Pat came down to be there for a while also. Now the white knuckle time came for me he needed an oxygen tank to get home finding an airline that would allow it was difficult, hats off to American Airlines they agreed. Bill and Tally were in first class and Thora and I were in coach so I would go up frequently and check on them and Mom said to me stop worrying I got upset and have to confess that I yelled at an Angel out of nervous frustration.
She was right we made it and Bill recovered for a long time. We found out much later that one of the repairs was not successful this news really effected Bill. You could see in him for the first time a lack of fight. While not being a physician, the lack of fight was probably a influencing factor in his passing.
Next snippet will be on teaching math.
Warmest Regards
Jim
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January 25, 2019
You asked about my teaching math, Bill worked with me on math in my teens both at home and at the school. I worked at the door and cabinet business next to the first ROES school and would go over after to ride home so I was exposed to his teaching. In 1954 I attended the class during the summer and obtained a 1st Class Radio Telephone license.
Bill instilled in me a desire to share knowledge so I started teaching math at ROES. Thank the Lord because my teaching experience expanded to being a teaching assistant at Glendale College, University of California State Los Angeles, and North ridge,lecturer at UCLA and UCI in sales and marketing to the graduate school of business , and systems engineering at the University of Missouri.
I also had the wonderful opportunity to teach business ethics for two years at McDonnell Douglas school of management training.
I can not help you on Richard Kiel while he was one of my students I have no knowledge of his teaching at ROES.
I’am going to combine another question you had about teaching the FCC test.
Bill was a analytical person so when he decided to teach the course he researched the reason for the license. With directional stations and the advent of TV and remote broadcasts it was imperative to insure that they did not infringe on other areas. So the analysis to course content went like this:
Third Class Rules and Regulations
Second class theory of transmission electronics to supervise technicians.
First class management of technical performance i.e. Mu,Lu equation as an operator did you understand your meter readings to insure that you were not infringing on other stations frequency?
I could have been a mole for Bill since I was teaching and part of the family when I took the exams never a question of the test content was asked in stead we would sit down for at least an hour or two and discuss many issues one of which was how we prepare students to better understand the theory and importance of achieving their goal. Most of the time we would take an issue an discuss different view points even though we agreed, that is teaching and learning, it is a shame our universities have lost this perspective.
Every one remembers R.T. D.Q. that included the reason for the testing and Bill figured it out!
Regards,
Jim
Jim McDonald in 1958 and 2018.
Courtesy of Patty Porter, Bill's niece.
