Colonel William John Nelson, US Army (Ret)
He was born in Waupaca, Wisconsin on 20 July 1921, to Walter J. Nelson and Grace (Wied) Nelson. He lived his entire early life in Waupaca, graduating from Waupaca High School in 1939. He learned to fish and hunt in his youth and pursued both for a good part of his life.
He attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, following his graduation from high school,. He studied chemical engineering and joined the ROTC. Following his second year at Wisconsin, he obtained an appointment to West Point. He graduated with the class of 1944 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Ordnance Corps. He married his high school sweetheart, Ruth Rode, following his graduation from West Point.
In November of that year he was shipped off to Europe and left his pregnant wife with her parents. He participated in the waning months of the Second World War, including the Battle of the Bulge. He remained in Germany following hostilities and was joined by his wife Ruth and 14 month old son, Bill, Jr. He, Ruth and Bill, Jr. remained in Germany through March 1947, when they returned to the US.
After visiting family in Wisconsin, they arrived at Aberdeen Proving Ground , MD in May. A few months later, their second son, Jim, was born. While at Aberdeen, he attended the Ordnance Officers Advanced course. He was then sent to Troy, NY, with the family, where he spent two years getting his Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Electrical Engineering from Rennssalaer Polytechnic Institute, graduating in June 1950.
Following graduation, he was assigned to Watervliet Arsenal in Troy, NY, but was quickly reassigned' six months later, back to Aberdeen Proving Ground. In April, 1951, their daughter, Nancy, was born in the same hospital as Jim. Bill remained at Aberdeen, helping to select and train the instructors that would form the cadre of the Guided Missile School in Huntsville, AL. He should have gone to The Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth in June 1953, but due to a case of hepatitus A, he could not attend until June of 1954. He claimed that he was glad his sentence was to the college and not to the prison.
His next assignment, in the summer of 1955, was to the far east as an advisor to the South Korean military. This was a one year unaccompanied tour, which meant that the family had to remain in the US. Ruth and the kids (and the dog) stayed in military housing in Monterey, CA until the following June, when they boarded ship and joined Bill in Japan. The family spent two years in Japan and had a very enjoyable experience. During this period Bill got very involved with the Boy Scouts.
In the spring of 1958, he again got orders, this time to Pasadena, CA as the Chief of the West Coast Field Office for the Army Missile Command, reporting to General John Medaris in Huntsville, AL. The family was again uprooted and sailed across the Pacific to Seattle, WA. They traveled across Washington, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, and Minnesota before arriving back in Wisconsin to visit extended family. The family then traveled the entire length of old Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles. The family settled in Azusa for the next two years and during that time the youngest child, David, was born. Bill continued his involvement with the scouts and served as committee chairman for a small troop of boys from very poor families. The activities he introduced them to and the camping trips they went on were magical. He took the troop to summer camp on Catalina Island one summer.
In June 1960, Bill was again transferred, this time to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL. He loaded the family of four kids (Dave was one year old), two beagles (male and female, female was in heat) into the 1953 Ford station wagon (no air conditioning) and headed east. Bill was involved in development of hardware for several Army missile programs. Bill continued his activities with the Boy Scouts.
In 1963, Bill was assigned to attend the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, PA. The family was again uprooted an moved. This time Bill, Jr. didn't have to move since he was at the Naval Academy. This was also the year John Kennedy was assasinated.
Following completion of the War College course, Bill was assigned to be Director of Technical Operations for the anti-ballistic missile system test center on Kwajalein Island in the Pacific. The family (minus Bill, Jr.) spent eighteen months living there. Jim graduated from high school there.
In the fall of 1965, Bill was assigned to the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Project Office in the Army Material Command, near Washington, DC. The family was again relocated (minus Bill, Jr. and Jim who was now at West Point) this time to Alexandria, VA. The family was to remain there while Bill dealt with the arcane politics and bureaucracy of the Pentagon and Washington until his retirement in 1971 as a full Colonel.
Bill joined Hughes Aircraft upon his retirement from the Army. He was originally slated to work on the contract Hughes hoped to get for the ABM System, but when that fell through they put him to work directing projects to refurbish Navy destroyers. The family relocated from Virginia to southern California (this time minus Nancy who was at the University of Miami, Ohio). They originally rented in Westlake Village and subsequently bought and settled in Rancho Palos Verdes in the summer of 1972. This was the period when they bought their first sailboat and joined the Navy Yacht Club at the Naval Station, Long Beach. This was also the period when Dave graduated from high school ans subsequently from UC Santa Barbara. Bill traded up to a larger boat (the Rubiyacht) and they were very active with the club for the next 16 years. At one point Bill served as the Commodore. As Bill approached age 65 he bought a motorhome and decided to retire from Hughes. In 1986, he and Ruthie traveled across the northern part of the country and visited family and friends in Wisconsin, Ohio and Connecticut. They continued down the east coast through Washington, DC into Florida and then across the southern tier back to Palos Verdes.
In 1988, they took a trip to Northern California and stopped to visit some friends of some friends in Lake of the Pines, near Auburn, CA. They fell in love with the area and bought a home over the weekend they were there. They returned to Palos Verdes, put their house up for sale, put their beloved Rubiyacht up for sale and started getting ready to move...again! The house sold in three days, the boat soon thereafter and off they went.
They moved into Lake of the Pines (LOP) on the first of August 1988, and became happy residents for the next seventeen years. They enjoyed a very active social life. LOP was a vacation development established in the 1960's and in 1988 was about 65% retirees. Bill was very active in golf, fishing and ultimately the homeowners association. He became president of the association and oversaw the development of the golf course irrigation system and the replacement of the community swimming pool. He was also active with the Nevada County water services district and referred to himself as the “Ed Norton of LOP”. When his and Ruth's health began to falter somewhat, they opted to move closer to their daughter Nancy Warren and their son Dave Nelson.
In 2005, they moved once again to the Black Lake development in Nipomo, CA. Bill once again became active in the local politics of water use. He actively followed and attended meetings of the Nipomo Community Services District and utimately was appointed as a director of that organization.
In 2011, it became apparent that their needs could be better met with assisted living, and they chose Merrill Gardens as their home. They had a good couple of years there before Ruth passed away in 2013. Bill continued to be his outgoing self, and served as vice-president of the resident's board this last year.