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Subject: 2ND OBIT: BALL, WILLIAM F. "BILL"
Date: 7 Feb 2006 19:02:11 -0700

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News Review newspaper Ridgecrest Ca Kern County
January 25, 2006 Front Page

LOSS OF KEY CHINA LAKE LEADER MOURNED

A 45 year resident of the Indian Wells Valley who led China Lake into the Information Age is dead at the age of 66.
William F. "Bill" Ball died Jan. 2, 2006 at City of Hope in Duarte. a memorial celebration of his life will be held at Crossroad Community Church, 235 North China Lake Boulevard at 3 pm on Friday Feb. 3 with Pastor Bill Corley officiating. A reception and meal at the church will follow the service.
Ball made his mark at China Lake in both the information systems and range management areas. He was also admired for the work he did to get the China Lake and Pt. Mugu range organizations working together after the two sites were consolidated into the Naval Air Weapons Center Weapons Division.
"Bill was a great manager and a great human being," said Paul Knight of Pt. Mugu who worked closely with Ball and Alexander "Sandy" Rogers at China Lake during the difficult process of merging three previously competitive ranges.
During the process of "bridging the trust gap between the ranges and between the Pt Mugu and China Lake sites," Knight added. "Bill led by example and was extremely nonparochial. This was the key to his being able to gaoin the trust of all employees."
"What I appreciated was that when he had confidence in your competence he gave you the full range of responsibility and the freedom to really do your job," said Terry Mitchellm, who worked with him when she was China Lake's organizational development advisor. "You really learned and grew with that kind of support."
Rogers recalled sitting in on a difficult session Ball had with an employee. "By the time Bill finished, the employee knew he had been reprimanded but was encouraged to do better," said Rogers.
Ball was born Oct. 13, 1939 in Centerview, Mo. and spent his childhood in Centerview and Warrensburg, Mo. He attended high school in Slater, Mo. where he lettered in both football and basketball and played trumpet in the band. He graduated in 1957 as senior class president.
At Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo. Ball's roommate John Thornton introduced him to his sister Marilyn.
Ball received his B.S. in physics and mathematics from Missouri Valley in early 1961. He accepted work at the Naval Ordnance Test Station, China Lake and became a junior professional here that February. He returned to Missouri in June to wed Marilyn and their "honeymoon" consisted of the drive west to China Lake.
Ball soon had a strong impact on the Navy's desert lab. "He was a pioneer in inertial navigation systems and ring-laser gyros. His group did some of the real fundamental work on that," said Rogers.
"During his 43 years of work at China Lake, Bill maintained always very high standards in his technical work and in supervision and management," Paul Homer said.
Ball headed the division responsible for developing Weapons system Support Facilities for Navy aircraft and the software division maintaining and developing new software for aircraft soperational flight programs. He also served as deputy directory of the Aircraft Weapons Integration Department and along the way he also earned his M.S. degree in engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles.
In 1983 he enrolled in Stanford University as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow an honor attained by only a handful of China Lakers. True to the intent of the program when Ball returned here in 1984 with a second master's degree this one in management he accepted the difficult job of leading the Naval Weapons Center into the Information Age.
He formed and became the first leader of the Computing and Information systems Department. Challenging activies he managed included acquisition and installation of a Cray Supercomjputer and development and installation of a fiber-optic communications system, including a modern telephone system for all of sprawling China Lake.
"Putting in that telephone system was a huge job," said Rogers. "That system is one of Bill's legacies here."
In 1992 he formed another department this one supporting the information systems needs of the entire 9,000 person NAWCWD. In January 1994 he became head of the Range Department at NAWCWD, China Lake then that October became deputy director of China Lake's and Pt Mugu's consolidated Pacific Ranges and Facilities Department with principal responsibilities for managing the ranges at the China Lake site.
"Bill really loved it on the range and he took range safety on as a personal mission," said Rogers. "He introduced operational risk amangement as a way of assessing what to do in situations where safety is important."
When activities were further consolidated a year later Ball's duties again expanded and he became director of test operations of all of PR&FD including the Land Range, Electronic Combat Range and Sea Range.
Ball also held advisory positions at national and international levels, and the Navy's leaders frequently called on him to lead special studies. He also served on the advisory board of the UCLA Management in Engineering Program. He received numerous awards during his carrer including the L.T.E. Thompson Award, the Michelson Laboratory Award, the Commander's Award and the Meritorious civilian Service Award.
Retiring in February 2004 after 43 years of government service he became working as a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton the following month.
An avid wordplayer Ball loved crossword puzzles, puns and other twists of the language. "We had a game of trying to slip mexed metaphors past each other in meetings," Rogers remembered.
"Bill was a great story storyteller and could keep us all laughing with his ability to spin yarns about just about any subject," said Knight.
Ball was a member for more than 30 years of the Ridgecrest Presbyterian Church which he served in many capacities including elder (numerous terms of office) and head of the worship committee and the pastor-seeking committee. He worked in adult and youth Christian education and on mission studies with various churches in the Presbytery. In the mid 90s he and Marilyn joined Crossroads Community Church.
"Bill's other passion was cooking" said Marilyn. "He grew his own herbs, made wonderful homemade soups and breads and gave a lot of attention to food presentation. He even took some weekend courses at the Pasadena Culinary School."
Surviving him are his wife Marilyn of Ridgecrest, son and grandson William Allan Ball and Nolan Vincent Ball of Lemoore, and daughter Chrsitine Linn Albrecht, her husband Brian Albrecht and granddaughters Erin and Shelby albrecht of Kirkland, Wash.
More survivors are his brother Albert E. Ball and wife Barbara of Warrenton, Va., sister Florence and husband Henry "Rollie" Stillman of Rocky Mount, Mo., sister-in-law Linda Wesner and husband Larry of Orlando, Fla., brother-in-law John Thornton and wife Toni of Independence, Mo., nieces Vicki Norman of Fairfax, Va., Mary Kepler of Atlanta, Ga., Kate Thornton of Portland Ore., and Jennifer Wesner of St.Petersburg, Fla., and nephews Patrick Thornton of Lenexa, Kan., Michael Meyer of Springfield, Mo. Matt Wesner of Orlando, Emmerson Foster "Skip" McGuire II of Columbia, Mo. and Joseph Albert McGuire of Seminole, Fla.
He was preceded in death by his father Albert R. Ball and mother Mary Margaret Ball of Slater.
In keeping with Ball's wishes the family requests that memorial donations be made in his name to help continuing leukemia research efforts at City of Hope. Checks may be sent to City of Hope, Central Processing, 1500 East Duarte Road, Duarte, Ca 91010 with a designation that it is in memory of William F. Ball (please include the middle initial to avoid confusion with anoth current City of Hope patient). For convenience forms and mailing envelopes for donations are available at Crossroads Community Church.
Arrangements and burial at sea are by Nautilus Society of beach cities, Lawndale, Calif.

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