A former Boardman Local School bus driver, Carl E. Will, was honored last week at the Inn at Ironwood on his 100th birthday.
      Mr. Will is among an elite group of an estimated 70,000 U.S. World War II veterans still alive.
      Carl Will was born in Youngstown, Oh. on July 28, 1924. He is the youngest of five children born to Carl, Sr. and Bessie (Harbor) Will and grew up on West Delason Ave. on the city’s southside.
      He attended Princeton and South High Schools and entered the U.S. Army Air Corps in November, 1942. He was a TSGT Radio Operator and Waist Gunner with the 15th Army Air Force 464th Bomb Group on a B24 Liberator heavy bomber in the WW II European Theater of Operation.
      Based in Pantanella, Italy for eight months he flew 50 missions over enemy territory. He returned to the United States only to later serve an additional four months in the China-Burma-India theater of operation where he flew and drove supplies to China across the Himalayas ‘Hump.’
      Mr. Will was honorably discharged in August, 1945. He earned a European ribbon with five bronze stars, a distinguished air medal with three oak leaf clusters, an Asian Pacific ribbon with one bronze star, and a Purple Heart.
      In August 1945, Carl returned to Boardman and his job on the Erie Lackawanna Railroad as an engineer. He and his wife and their three young children moved to Western Reserve Rd. in 1950. As a fireman on the Erie Lackawana Railroad, he was often ‘furloughed,’ and to make ends meet, he became a school bus driver, initially with St. Charles Parochial School, and then for Boardman Local Schools. He retired in 1974.
      Mr. Will made the end of the school year special for the students he took to and from school, giving each an ice cream treat.
      His second wife, Shirley, was also a Boardman bus driver and Carl’s ‘regular substitute driver’ when he couldn’t get home from the railroad in time.
      He and his first wife, Mildred, married in February, 1947 and enjoyed 31 years together until her passing in 1978. He took his family to many national parks across the country during the summers. Carl and Millie raised their family on Western Reserve Rd. where he owned and operated a Volkswagen repair shop for many years.
      Carl was also a bus driver for Boardman Local Schools and was proud of his many Safe Driver awards.
      He married his second wife, Shirley Wittkugle, in 1982. He and Shirley traveled to nearly all the continental states in their RV and through Canada to The Alaskan Trail. They settled in Thonotassa, Fla. near Tampa and enjoyed retirement years there with many good friends. They were married 27 years until Shirley’s passing in 2010. Carl returned to Ohio in 2015.
      Carl has five children, Tom (Margaret) Will of Canfield, Jan Daley of Columbiana, Patricia Will of East Liverpool and Linda (Dave) Skillman of Columbiana. A son, David Will, is deceased. He also has two stepdaughters, Linda Oma and Laurie Wittkugle. Carl has eight grandchildren, four step-grandchildren, and 21 great-grandchildren.
      Mr. Will said the key to a long life--- ‘do what you want!’
      “Do what you to do. They always said the Lord takes the good ones - I must’ve been bad since I’m still here,” Will said.