Ceremonies around the world will commemorate the 65th anniversary of one of the most significant battles in military history Saturday — The Normandy Invasion: D-Day, June 6, 1944.

In St. Joseph, the Spalding family will lay to rest one of the soldiers who took part in the campaign.

Ocle G. Spalding landed at Normandy two days after the allied invasion as a tank commander in the Third Armored Division. A tattered map shows the route Mr. Spalding took through Europe to Germany.

The Army recognized Mr. Spalding for fighting in five major campaigns, including the Battle of the Bulge. By the end of the war he had gone through four tanks and was the sole survivor of his original crew that landed at Normandy.

He died Wednesday at 94.

“He talked about the war very little, the things he saw,” said Mr. Spalding’s son, Bill Spalding. “He started to open up to the hospice folks a little bit at the end. I think it was easier for him to talk to people who didn’t know him as well.”

For the people who knew Mr. Spalding well, he was a mechanic and a teacher at Hillyard Technical School.

He worked on small engines behind his house on Lincoln Street long after he retired in 1977. He drove his car until December of last year but had to give up the maintenance work in recent years.

“If he could’ve gotten out there himself, he still would’ve worked on it,” his son, Mike Spalding, said.

Neighbors continued to bring small engines over for repairs, though Mr. Spalding volunteered Bill for much of the work.

“He would sit there and watch you do it the wrong way for a while,” Bill said. “Then he would chime in and ask, ‘Did you ever think about doing it this way?’ and it usually worked.”

Mr. Spalding was 54 when he went back to school to get his teaching certificate from Colorado State University. The time in school gave him a chance to live with his daughter, Sandra, who currently lives in Colorado Springs.

“That was in 1969, and it wasn’t as common for people to go back to school in those days,” Sandra said.

The three siblings remember when their mother, Frances, decided that she and Mr. Spalding should start going on weekly camping trips. According to the stories, Mr. Spalding wasn’t much of a camper, but if his wife wanted to go, it was time to hook up the trailer.

“He never did learn how to back that thing up,” Mike said. “He probably could’ve done it fine without her there giving directions.”

The mental picture made the whole family laugh.

Before Frances died in 1998, Mr. Spalding had dedicated all of his time to taking care of her while she was sick. With his help, she was able to stay home until the last few days.

After her death, Mr. Spalding did volunteer hospice work, collecting obituaries from the newspaper so workers could remember their former clients. Mr. Spalding found himself on the other end of hospice services in his final months.

“We knew it was coming some day, but it’s never easy,” Mike said.

Clinton Thomas can be reached

at clintonthomas@npgco.com.