William Robert Brown of Lompoc died on April 11, 2016. He was born on July 27, 1920, to George and Florence Brown in Kansas City, Missouri. He had an older sister Dorothy and an older brother Thomas. After graduating from high school, Bill went to junior college for a few years until at age 20 he began to work for an aircraft design company in Wichita. He worked as part of the war build up. Because of his work, Bill was deferred from the Draft until 1943, when he was drafted into the Army.

Because of his aircraft knowledge, he finally got sent to an Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado, and the on to Las Vegas to train as a gunner on the big planes. Oddly, Bill never got into active combat. The military kept sending him here and there for more and specific training. A life-changing event happened when Bill was flying with a crew in a B24 and his oxygen tank ran out at 34,000 feet. He felt that an angel had rescued him. At one point his crew was sent to the South Pacific to make bombing runs on Japan, but the war ended. They were sent to England and Paris, arriving on July 15th – Bastille Day. Bill commented, "what a party" when referring to the day. During the post-war occupation, Bill spent much time in Germany and had a chance to travel around Europe. He finally got back to the United States in August 1945. His parents had moved to California to live near his brother Thomas in Oakland, California.

The love story of Bill and his future wife Betty was one of near misses. Bill almost met young Betty Hobbs when she was only 7 years old and he was 11. Betty had gone with her sitter to the Browns' home. Bill was in the basement at his model airplane workshop. However, Bill's mother kept Betty upstairs. Bill's older sister and Betty's sister were high school chums. Bill's parents stayed with Betty's parents for three months when they first moved to California, so Betty knew everyone in Bill's family except him. When Bill returned from the war, he finally met 22-year old Betty. After only a few dates, Bill proposed to Betty, and they were married two months later on January 2, 1946. They were married for nearly 60 years before his dear Betty succumbed to a second stroke.

Bill began to work for North American Aviation Company and stayed with them 35 years. He was part of the group of aviation designed who were called to Washington and told that with the presence of Werner von Braun, the United States was going to begin making guided missiles. North American was assigned the task of designing and making the engines. After some time, Bill was sent to Florida and became the lead designed of the rocket test stands as the Site Engineer and oversaw the construction of the first ICBM Launch Pad. He took off three years to go to college and study Architecture. When they were suddenly laid off, Bill looked at the Boeing Company in Seattle. With as much suddenness, North American was given the contract to build the launch sites for the Apollo missiles. Bill was one of the prime designers of these sites and finally retired at the age of 62 as the "Interface Engineer" between North American Aviation and NASA.

With their retirement, Bill and Betty moved to Tehachapi, California. They attended St. Jude's Episcopal Church that was meeting in a temporary facility. When real estate was given to the church, Bill volunteered to design the building and to oversee the construction. However, the bishop got ahold of him first and had him design and build a huge new retreat center at Oakhurst, California. He then built the new church. Bill had been baptized at age 4 and always went to church. When he married Betty, they began to go to the Episcopal Church. During this period Bill spent some time at the Melodyland School of Theology and was also a librarian for the Gideon Society. When Betty suffered a stroke, they needed to move to sea level. They went to Florida and lived there for 10 years. They came to Lompoc looking for a mobile home but ended up renting their current home in the heritage Village. His dear Betty suffered further strokes and passed away in April 2006. A memorial service was held for Betty at St. Mary's Episcopal Church.

Bill's dad was a piano player and salesman and began lessons for Bill at the age of 7. Bill played the clarinet all through school. When h retired, he felt the call to write more songs and to write his own lyrics. The congregation of St. Mary's had the honor of using some of his songs.

The memorial service at St. Mary's Episcopal Church is pending.