Clayton Hinze

TORRINGTON, WYOMING...........Funeral services for former Torrington resident CLAYTON FREDRICK HINZE 89, will be held at 2pm Friday, January 15, 2010 at the Colyer Funeral Home Chapel with Past Master of Torrington Masonic Lodge #29, Larry Dodge officiating. Burial with military honors will follow in the Hillcrest Cemetery in Lingle, Wyoming. Clayton passed away at his home in Scottsbluff, Nebraska on January 10, 2010. Visitation will be Thursday from 3pm to 7pm and briefly following the service. Arrangements are under the direction of the Colyer Funeral Home and friends may send condolences to the family at www.colyerfuneralhome.com. Clayton was born April 3, 1920 in Surprise, Nebraska the son of Fredrick August and Eva Rosena (Reitz) Hinze. When he was a child his family moved to a farm near Lingle, Wyoming. In 1940 he graduated from Lingle High School. He continued his education at Colorado University in Boulder, Colorado for one year. There he earned a license as an aircraft mechanic. In 1941 he moved to Los Angeles, California where he attended Aero Institute and received a Master Aviation Mechanics License. He then went to work for Lockheed on the prototype B-29 Project. While there he met his true love Betty Jean Templeman. They were married March 21, 1942. In 1944 Clayton entered the U.S. Army and served as a machine gunner during the Battle of the Bulge. In 1946 he returned to the Torrington area and farmed there until 1958. He move his family into Torrington where he worked as a mechanic. In 1967 he signed on with Kansas Nebraska Natural Gas. KN transferred him to Scottsbluff, Nebraska in 1972. He retired from KN in1987 after sixteen years as a Leak Detection Specialist. Clayton was a fifty year member of the Masons, and a Past Master of the Lingle Masonic Lodge, and a lifetime NRA member. His hobbies included gunsmithing, clock building, and thirty years of camping in the Black Hills. Clayton is survived by his daughter Linda Beaty (Milton) of Santa Fe, New Mexico; two sons, Jack Hinze (Mary Beth) of Tempe, Arizona, and Robert Hinze of Gering, Nebraska; five grandchildren; and five great grandchildren. He also leaves behind his dear friends and caretakers, Willa Loos and Jeannie Loos. He was preceded in death by his parents; and his wife.

Clayton Hinze

April 3, 1920 - January 10, 2010