Sherman Dillberg died on Dec. 26th, 2005.  He was 93 years old and  "Dad" to my husband, Bill, and his brother,  Ray,  father in-law to  me and to Ray's wife, Debbie. He was grandfather (PaPa) to our daughters, Amy and Marci; (our late daughter, Mindy was his firstborn grandchild).  His other grandchildren are Ray's children: Derek, Tiffany, Jeremy, Desiree', and Timothy.  PaPa was GREAT-grandfather to OUR grandchildren,  Taylor, Ryan, Connor, Mackenzie and Brynnan,  and to Ray's grandchildren; Zacchary, Erin, Sean, Sara, Peyton, Kayla and Kylie.   A grand total of two sons, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, the great-grandchildren rangr in age from 22 years old down to 15  months old.  That's a lot of dad, grandpa and GREAT- grandpa hats for one man to wear!

PaPa retired from the Oklahoma State Highway Department. He spent many of Bill and Ray's childhood years as a boy scout  leader, with Ettie, his wife, who was a wonderful den mother. They were active for all of their married life in their church, and worked with REACT in their state to help people on the highway who had emergency situations. Ettie (Grammy) -PaPa's wife of 58 years -preceded him in death, and we all miss her very much! What a wonderful mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother she was!

 
PaPa visited us on the west coast for the second time in June of 2000. When he returned home after the visit, we planned to resume e-mailing and instant messaging regularly! (When he visited us 2 years ago he made the decision to buy a computer). PaPa proved we are never too old to learn!

 
     While PaPa was visiting us in June of 2000, His great-grandson, then 11 year-old  Ryan,  "interviewed" him about his experience in the Civilian Police Academy class from which PaPa recently graduated. After taking notes during the "interview", Ryan wrote an "article" about it and from that came up with the idea to interview neighbors and publish a neighborhood newspaper! This he and his brother, Connor, did, and the article about PaPa was the main story in the first issue. 

     Read the article (written by then 11 year-old Ryan) ; An excerpt from THE HALL STREET JOURNAL,  (the boys' neighborhood newpaper)  BELOW: 

         Father, grandfather, and great grandfather Sherman Dillberg graduated from the civilian police academy two weeks ago Thursday.  He is 88 years old and has gone through much of the training that a policeman goes through.  A part of the training he had to go through was role playing like actual encounters with criminals. He had missions to go through with a live unloaded gun.
There were about 86 police men there watching them to see how they did.  First they picked  a partner then they were on their own. They went into an alley and there was a man on the ground that said he was drunk. Sherman told him to get up but the man said he couldn't because he fell and and  hurt himself.  After much delay, Sherman finally got the man to his feet and started to search him from the front.  The man grabbed the cop's gun and Sherman "hauled off and hit him".
His next part, (mission) was to go up to investigate a domestic fight.  Sherman went to one man while his partner went to another.
Sherman was handling his man while his partner was attacked by the other man with a butcher knife.  His partner pulled out her gun and shot the man that had the butcher knife.  Then Sherman and his partner went to the remaining man and took him to jail.
 Sherman is the father of  Bill Dillberg who lives on Hall street. He is the great grandfather of HALL STREET JOURNAL reporters Ryan and Connor B_______.
He is visiting from Edmond, Oklahoma , which is right near Oklahoma City.