May 12, 2021
WELLSVILLE, N.Y. — Arthur M. Van Tyne, 95, passed away Monday, May 10, 2021, at Jones Memorial Hospital, Wellsville, N.Y., after a short illness.
He was born on Aug. 12, 1925, in Syracuse, N.Y., the son of the late Roy and Isabelle (Hoag) Van Tyne. He married his sweetheart Patricia (Boyd) Van Tyne, in Chicago on July 13, 1946. They were married for 67 years before she passed away on Feb. 24, 2014.
Art was raised in Syracuse, N.Y., until his father, a steel-alloy chemist, moved the family to New Jersey to aid in the wartime steel effort. Upon graduating from high school at the age of 16 he worked in the steel mill for a year before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Corp’s (now the U.S. Air Force) Cadet Program in September of 1943. After that he completed flight training at Michigan State University and military bases in Kansas and Texas, Art became a navigator aboard the Curtiss C-46 Commando Cargo aircraft. He was stationed at the 5th Air Force Headquarters in the Pacific theater, where he flew missions over Okinawa, Japan, southern China, and South Korea. Art was awarded several medals and honors, including the Navigator Badge, the Army of Occupation Medal with Japan bar, and several other achievement and commendation medals. Art was honorably discharged in 1947. He then joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a military operational specialist. He retired from the reserves in 1974 as a lieutenant colonel. In 2013 Art was inducted into the New York State Veterans’ Hall of Fame.