William (Bill) Ussery

Born in August, 1927, William (Bill) Ussery was caught in the Great Depression of the 1930's when his father, a railroad conductor, suddenly lost his job. Bill and his immediate family then moved to his grandfather's farm in Mississippi. There he dutifully performed the age-old farm chores of milking the family cow, weeding the vegetable garden and, of course, feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs.

These work and learning disciplines followed him to the Columbus High School in Mississippi where he worked part time at the radio station WCBI as a station engineer. This prepared him later, after his Navy service, for his full time job as a Chief Station Engineer on Springdale's Station KBRS. While there, he often filled in as an announcer with the added duty of selecting the music to be played over the air waves. His "fame" cause by these extra assignments is still fondly remembered and attested to by Tena Power, a present resident of our Morningside group.

The interest in engineering continued to grow during his service in the Navy during World War II, where Bill served with the rating of Air Controller Third Class as a supervisor of runway landing and takeoff operations in several of our Florida-Located Naval Air Station Control Towers. This three year period of active duty further stirred his interest in the technical aspects of our world and influenced his thoughts about what professional area he would pursue in civilian life. Later at John Brown University he chose the technical path of math and science leading to a Bachelor, Degree in Electronic Engineering.

Also, stirred up during his sophomore year at John Brown was an interest in a fellow female student, Ernestina Walters, who was pursuing a Liberal Arts course at John Brown. He soon turned that interest into the fast action of marriage. Their romance has lasted over sixty-six years and, though recently cloud by her bout of Alzheimer's, has not diminished one bit.When the Baldwin Piano and Electronic Organ Company moved south to Fayetteville, Arkansas, Bill quickly signed up with and organized their quality control department. To further bolster his engineering skills, Bill took several advanced electronic courses at Arkansas University. His twenty-eight years with Baldwin brought him deep and wide need to produce and maintain the high standards of products destined to be played-by and listened to by Baldwin customers. These two consumer groups, the musicians and their audience are both highly critical and very quick to complain about products that do not meet their stringent quality expectations.

Following his retirement from Baldwin, Bill took a position as an electronics salesman at a local Wal-Mart. However, he was soon offered a position as the buyer of electrics pats ad subsystems for the Emerson Electric Plant. There, he used his knowledge and experience in the Purchasing Department to assure that they bought parts at competitive prices that also met Emerson's quality needs.

When true retirement from work finally arrived, Bill found his ideal job -a chance to closely follow in his father's footsteps as a train conductor on the scenic and freight Arkansas and Missouri Railroad located in North West Arkansas. This job opportunity was much too attractive for him to turn down. Bill happily and quickly left Emerson for what turned out to be four delightful years serving the sightseeing patrons of the railroad. However, after four years of ever-swaying train car riding, his legs wore out and he finally and completely retired from the business and industry.

Bill's biography would not be complete without mentioning his born again conversion to Christ which took place while he was serving in the Navy in 1948. His mentor was a fellow shipmate, Calvin Scout. Bill has been an active member of Springdale Baptist Church for thirty-four years. Much of this time, he volunteered as a Sunday school teacher, in his later years, he found that he was teaching second generation set of sixteen year old church members. Presently, he still as active member of church's Deacon Committee Council.

Fatherhood has blessed him with five children, Stephen (High School Teacher), Billy (Head of Purchasing at Brunner & Laye), John (Special Education Instructor), Nancy (High School Teacher), and David (Professor at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock) and thirteen grandchildren and, thus far, six great- grandchildren.

Written By: Don Kuhlman March 2017