William Clayton Overmier

On Monday, August 2, 2021, William Clayton Overmier, beloved husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather, passed away at the age of 101.

How do you summarize 101 years of life in just a few short paragraphs?

Let us start at the beginning, in the state of Illinois, on Saturday, February 14, 1920. Clayton and Hazel (Coffeen) Overmier had their first-born, a son they named William Clayton Overmier, fondly known as Bill.

The Overmier family moved to New Mexico when Bill was around eight years old. In 1937, Bill graduated from Albuquerque High School. After graduation, Bill enlisted in the National Guard to earn gas money for his yellow Chevy Roadster. He trained at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas and was inducted into the Army in 1941, supposedly for one year of active-duty training.

Bill served as a Technical Sergeant in the Battery B 200th Coast Artillery, better known as “The Regiment.” The Regiment was selected for overseas assignment and stationed at Fort Stotsenberg near Clark Field in the Philippines. Due to their high level of training, the Regiment was known officially as the best Anti-aircraft Regiment in the Army.

In the fall of 1941, the Japanese attacked the Philippines, bombing Clark Field. The Allied Forces fought courageously in the face of tremendous enemy power until Wednesday, April 9, 1941, when they surrendered to the Japanese. On Thursday, May 8, 1942, Bill was captured off the island of Corregidor and sent to Japan as a prisoner of war to work in the Mitsubishi shipyards and coal mines for the next three and a half years.

The 200th and 515th — The New Mexico Brigade — brought home four Presidential Unit Citations and the Philippine Presidential Citation. Bill also received a Purple Heart for an injury he sustained while a POW. The men, including Bill, earned their place in American History.

His service to his country and the Albuquerque community did not end after his honorable discharge in 1945. Upon returning from the war, Bill attended the University of New Mexico, receiving his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering. Bill served as president of the New Mexico Home Builders Association and was an active member with them as well as the New Mexico Builder’s Trust for many years. A second-generation contractor in Albuquerque, now followed by a third and fourth generation, Bill finally retired in 2000 at the age of 80. Many of the residential homes and commercial buildings found across Albuquerque were built by Bill.

On Tuesday, April 16,1946, he married the beautiful woman who would be his wife of 73 years, Anna Lee Caldwell. Bill and Ann had five children, Alan, Lynne, Terina, Richard, and Charles; nine grandchildren; 14 (with one on the way) great-grandchildren; and one great-great-granddaughter.

Bill was a member of the North Valley Lion’s Club, the New Mexichords barbershop group, and a die-hard UNM Lobo fan. In his later years, Bill was also an active member of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor.

Bill had a quiet, but ever-imposing presence in the North Valley house that he built in 1951, typically found in his later days sitting in his favorite chair, watching Lobo basketball, snug in his coat (no matter the temperature). Bill is fondly remembered as a consummate napper, and the type of man to order dessert first and dinner second, always. While a POW in Japan, Bill memorized the one book he had — Ely Culberson’s Contract Bridge Blue Book, the official and universal standard master work on Contact Bridge — and was a thus an avid and merciless Bridge player.

Although Bill saw himself as just an ordinary man who got caught up in extraordinary circumstances, to his grandchildren, he will forever be remembered as a hero.

William “Bill” Clayton Overmier is preceded in death by his parents, his sisters Betty Barrow and Lois Gregg. He is survived by his wife, Anna Lee; sons, Alan, Richard and Charles; daughter, Lynne, all of Albuquerque, NM; daughter, Teri Overmier of Portland, OR; his brother, Jack Overmier of Los Alamos; nine grandchildren; 14 great-grandchildren, with one more expected soon; and one great-great-granddaughter.

A Funeral Service will be held at FRENCH-University on Monday, August 9, 2021, 11:00 a.m., with burial to follow at Sunset Memorial Park, 924 Menaul Blvd NE.