Warren M. Fordyce, Sr. of Prosser, Wash. died Sunday, Oct. 26, 2003, at Prosser Memorial Hospital. He was 82 years old.

Mr. Fordyce was born Jan. 21,1921, in Sunnyside, Wash. to parents Dr. Wilbert Evans and Ruth (Waite) Fordyce.

After graduation from Sunnyside High School, Mr. Fordyce worked as assistant manager of the Sunnyside Liberty Theatre. Later he was promoted to manager of the Pasco theater as well as to two in Walla WaIla.

When the Hanford Military Reservation was built, he opened the 1,200-seat theater there. Because of his work in an essential civilian occupation, he needed special permission from his draft board to enlist in the Navy. During WWII he served as a medic at the Oakland, Calif., and Newport, R.I., Naval hospitals.

Immediately after the war, he joined the Washington Motor Coach Company as a driver. Later he moved to Portland where he enrolled at the Multnomah School of Engineering. In 1950 he began his career at United Airlines in San Francisco, where he became administrative assistant to the Vice President of Engineering. While in California he completed his studies at the University of California.

In 1959 he moved his family to the Seattle area where he joined Boeing. His work as an industrial engineer there ranged from participation in the design of the 747 to flood relief work in Wilkes Barre, Penn., to installation of Bomarc missile bases in Michigan, Massachusetts and Ontario, Canada. He also served several years as the treasurer of the Boeing Good Neighbor Fund. In 1962 he moved his family to Vashon Island where he served tirelessly for 20 years in the Volunteer Fire Department, was elected a fire commissioner and was instrumental in establishing the county-wide Emergency Medical System in King County.

In 1984 he retired from Boeing and moved with his wife Phyllis to Selah. In these years, he continued his passion for volunteering at the Selah Senior Center, the Yakima County Health Department, the Selah City Council, the Yakima Greenway and with the Yakima Air Fair, where he served on the board of directors.

Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Phyllis (Sapp) of Prosser, son Warren Murdock Fordyce, Jr. and his wife Madelyn (Penny) of Yakima, daughter Ardean Fox and husband Ron of Grandview, daughter Lee Ann Fordyce and her husband Mark Hornby of New York City, brother Dr. Wilbert E. Fordyce and wife Eleanor of Seattle and their two sons, David and Rick.

Additional survivors include his grandchildren Lori Straus and her husband James of Bothell, Susan Smith and her husband Mark of Vancouver, Ryan Fox of Pullman and Andrea Fox of Seattle and great-grandchildren Molly and Brad Smith and Jacob Straus. His parents, brother Paul and sister Dorothy died earlier.

At the request of the family, there will be no services. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Yakima Greenway Foundation.

Arrangements were entrusted to the Valley Hills Funeral Home in Sunnyside.