Milestones, Obituaries

OTIS D. CORROW

PIERMONT, N.H. – Otis Dean Corrow, 96, of Piermont, formerly of Hardwick, Vt., passed away peacefully on Sunday, October 31, at the Veterans Administration Hospital in White River Juction, Vt.

He was born March 23, 1925, in Hardwick, the son of the late Clayton D. Corrow Sr. and Nina Marshall Corrow. He attended Hardwick Academy and many years later, on March 1, 2012, he graduated from Hazen Union School in Hardwick through a State of Vermont School program. He was 87 years young.

He enlisted in the United States Army during WWII in Hartford, Conn. He very proudly served his country in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He was one of the first wave of the solders onto Anzio Beach in Italy and one of the few survivors. Otis received several distinguished awards including, a double Purple Heart. Otis was Honorably Discharged on January 23, 1946.

On April 13, 1946, he married Joyce Bidwell, in Morrisville, Vt. For more than 20 years the young married couple lived in Massachusetts, before returning to Vermont in 1968 and making the Hardwick/Woodbury area their home. Following the death of Otis’s beloved wife of 53 years, he moved to New Hampshire to live with his daughter and son-in-law, Jeannine and Peter.

Otis was employed by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Agricultural Department for 21 years. He later drove a truck, carrying agricultural products. He retired in 1978 due to acute health reasons. 

He was an all-around Vermont farm boy at heart. He enjoyed the outdoors, hunting, fishing and most of all, family life. 

Survivors include: four children, Denise Griffith and her husband, Larry of Bushnell, Fla., Jeannine Erpelding and her husband, Peter of Piermont, Carlton Corrow and his wife, Roxanne, of Lyndonville, Vt., and Dan Corrow of Charlottesville, Va.; 11 grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; many nieces, nephews and cousins. 

In addition to his parents, Otis was predeceased by all his siblings, Archie Corrow, Clayton “Junie” Corrow Jr., Maylo Gonyaw, Irene Corrow, Gertrude DePaolo and his twin sister, Ona Miller. 

Graveside services will be held in the spring in the Fairview Cemetery in Hardwick with date and time to be announced. 

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to help a Veteran at: Voluntary Services, White River Jct., VA Medical Center, 215 N. Main Street, White River Junction, VT 05001.Arrangements are in the care of Dian R. Holcomb of Northern Vermont Funeral Service, 60 Elm Street, Hardwick, Vt. Online condolences are welcomed at northernvermontfuneralservice.com.

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