Wallace McGreevy; Retired TWA Pilot

Wallace McGreevy, a longtime former resident of Thousand Oaks and retired pilot for TWA, has died at 75.

McGreevy was born July 11, 1921, in Cleveland, Ohio. He always wanted to be a pilot, said his son, John McGreevy of Simi Valley.

He ended up flying everything from early Martin aircraft to 747s. “He loved Lockheed, and the Lockheed Constellation was his favorite plane to fly,” his son said.

A B-24 captain in World War II, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

“The B-24 had a tendency to blow up,” said John McGreevy, himself a pilot, “and it happened to my dad once in the Pacific.”

After the war, McGreevy flew for 40 more years at Trans World Airlines before retiring in 1986. He lived in Thousand Oaks for 33 years, but moved to Phoenix because of health problems in 1992.

McGreevy loved to travel even off the job.

“We drove over the Swiss Alps in the winter; we rented a house in Ireland for a month in the summer,” his son said.

“Whenever we took a trip and one of the flight crew would see our last name, they would ask, ‘Are you related to Wallace McGreevy?’ ” said McGreevy’s daughter, Joyce McGreevy of Prunedale.

Wallace McGreevy was active in establishment of St. Paschal Baylon Parish in Thousand Oaks in 1960.

Son Michael McGreevy, who lives in Sunnyvale, is employed by NASA, doing pioneering work in the area of virtual reality.

McGreevy is also survived by son Thomas McGreevy of Tucson, Ariz.; daughters Kathleen Nottingham of Phoenix, Carolyn Hanratty of Elgin, Texas, and Marjorie McGreevy and Erin Bevando, both of Bend, Ore.; 18 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Services will be held Saturday at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Phoenix. Burial will be in Holy Cross Cemetery in Phoenix.