Batavia resident and United States Navy veteran Howard Westphal passed away on April 13, 2007.

“This is an end of an era for us, for our family,” said daughter Jeanne Porter. “He was still in good health when he passed, he just got old. He lived an extraordinary life and he will be missed.”

That extraordinary life began in Dayton, Ky. when Westphal was born on Jan. 20, 1910. Raised in Southern Ohio, he graduated from the Hughes High School in 1928 and embarked upon a life in the military.

He married wife Louise (nee Mussey) in October, 1941, and they honeymooned in Florida.