Friends Remember Married OSU Couple Killed In Homecoming Parade Crash

Two of the four people killed in the OSU homecoming parade crash were a married couple, inseparable even in death.

Monday, October 26th 2015, 6:46 pm

By: News 9


Two of the four people killed in the OSU homecoming parade crash were a married couple, inseparable even in death.

Dr. Marvin Stone and his wife Bonnie worked at OSU for more than 30 years and leave behind a powerful legacy.

“It's a huge loss for our entire campus and the community,” said Dr. Ron Elliott, a longtime friend and colleague of the Stones.

It is painful to talk about the loss of his dear friends, but Elliott wanted everyone to know how special Marvin and Bonnie were to him.

“They were just really, really good people, the kind that you would love to call a friend, a neighbor a colleague,” Elliott said.

The Stones were sitting together at the parade when the car came plowing toward them.

Both died at the scene.

“The first names I saw were Bonnie and Marvin under the fatalities and I, I'm not sure what happened,” Elliott told News 9.  “I was in shock and stared at the screen and read it about three times and it started to sink in that it was real."

The Stones were longtime residents of Stillwater and a huge part of the Oklahoma State University family.

Bonnie was in her 33rd year of working in OSU’s Institutional Research and Information Management.

“Just like Marvin, she would go out of her way to help anybody,” Elliott explained.

Marvin was an innovator in the world of agricultural engineering.

He retired in 2006, but still served as an Emeritus professor.

“We don't know if we have met anybody as intelligent as Marvin, but very humble,” Elliott said. “He was a walking encyclopedia, you could ask him about anything."

The Stones had no children and as hard as it is to say, Elliott said maybe passing together was better since they were inseparable. 

“Rarely one without the other, so I honestly think, as long as they lived together and as close as they were, that it would have been difficult for the survivor,” he explained.  “It leaves a big hole when they are gone, snatched away like that.” 

When he retired, Marvin and Bonnie Stone created an endowed scholarship through the OSU Foundation.

Their family asked that any donations be made to that scholarship fund.

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