Bill was born in California, spent his childhood in Massachusetts, and returned to California after graduating from Natick High School in 1972. He began his career at Lockheed, Sunnyvale, following in his father’s footsteps, in 1983. While working at Lockheed he developed a passion for space, traveled to Cape Canaveral, Washington, DC, Vandenberg AFB, Peterson AFB, and submarine bases in Washington, and Georgia. Bill had 26+ years of hardware engineering experience designing and manufacturing flight hardware and ground support equipment for multiple missile, satellite, and telescope programs. He had extensive experience with flight hardware, installation, vehicle final assembly, test close out and launch support. He retired in 2011 to Southern California, lived in the Pikes Peak area of Colorado for a few years, then moved back to Southern California where he passed away on April 1, 2023 at the age of 70.
Over the years his other interests included buying and selling houses and automobiles. He was generally interested in “how things worked.” He enjoyed working on motors, electrical issues, and battery power. He was always busy researching online: cars, trucks, motors, batteries, Tesla, and SpaceX. He loved watching the history channel and anything Star Trek or Star Wars related.
He is survived by siblings Marilyn, Donna, Terry, Billy, Robin, and Nancy, and 11 nieces and nephews. This memorial space flight is his family’s way to help fulfill one of his longstanding dreams. He always wished that he would be able to make it into space.
