Bill Russell passed peacefully into the next life on Sunday, January 28 at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. His loving wife, Sonia was at his side, and nurtured him in his final years.

He was born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1932 to William Russell, Sr, an engineer, and Betty Davis Russell, a teacher. He spent his early childhood in the deep South, while his father worked on bridge and road construction. Moving to Hawaii at age 7, he was witness to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and his father's rescue and recovery role as Public Works officer in the Navy. In 1942 he and his mother were evacuated with other military families from Hawaii, and he eventually arrived in Washington, D.C.

He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, in Washington, and attended UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University, graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering. At Duke, he met Patricia Holly, whom he married after graduation. They moved to Atlanta, where he worked for Lockheed, and she completed her Medical Degree. While at Lockheed, he served in the Air Force Reserve, designing monitoring systems for aircraft and flying as a crew member into atom bomb testing in the Marshall Islands.

He moved to Washington, D.C. and joined NASA at the time of its formation. His career at NASA spanned thirty years, and involved many different spacecraft and programs. In addition to working in sounding rockets and the International Space Station, he became Project Director of
the Delta project, which was the most prolific and successful system for satellite launches in its time. Hundreds of communications, scientific, and spy satellites were launched by Delta rockets during his career, and later generations of Delta are still used by private industry for satellite delivery.

His favorite project while at NASA was his work with the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization during the Reagan Administration. Using a Delta vehicle, experiments were conducted from orbit involving detection of ballistic missiles and military aircraft, as well as the interception and destruction of potential missiles from an orbiting satellite. While the experiments were successful, the program was not implemented, due to the decline and collapse of the Soviet system. It was Bill's belief, however, that the technical superiority of the United States and its allies forced the Soviets to neglect their domestic affairs in order to compete militarily, and that his work contributed to this collapse.

After NASA, Bill moved to Orbital Sciences Industries, working on the Pegasus vehicle, which in 1990 was the world's first privately developed launch vehicle. After several years at OSI, he retired to South Florida, where he did some private consulting work, and spent the remainder of
his life.

William has a plethora amount of his work on permanent display at the Smithsonian in Washington and the Dulles Space Museum. He was an important innovator on the very frontier of aerospace, Space Wars, and the interception and destruction of ICBM's (incoming armed enemy rockets)... Spacex and Richard Branson used his platforms. Elon Musk's very much but they tend to blow up rather a lot. William appeared before Congress at their request to demonstrate some of these technologies. NASA gave his and his team a 4-day Accolade when they launched the last Delta 180 rocket in 2014. It was awesome!!! The majority of satellites and GPS were all put in the right place by this wonderful and humble guy. Bill was an ardent dog lover and gardener. He kept photos of all his dogs (Jeeves, Jock, Roscoe, Wolfgang "Woofie" and Anabel) in his office. He loved working in his greenhouse that he built by hand and outside on his fruit trees and flowers. He enjoyed keeping up with his college and high school friends and enjoyed horse racing and Duke Basketball. He was often reading Tom Clancy novels and loved Rudyard Kipling's writings. He retired to Southern Florida in 1991 where he resided until his death.

William Alton Russell was a Captain in the USAAF flying dangerous missions into A-Bomb blasts in Eniwetok and Bikini, Marshall Islands.  He measured bomb blast pressures, including impact on aircraft structural stresses and more.  During one of these tests, he lost the canopy of his aircraft.  He did this until his docemeter became too loaded with radiation to continue. He invented a heat-resistant fuselage paint.  He then moved to NASA, Goddard, and DARPA.  He was the lead project manager for NASA's most successful and longest space vehicle program ever. The Delta 180 space rocket launch vehicle lasted 50 years.

He installed the GPS, was a pioneer in breaking open the space frontier, and was the Star of Star Wars appearing before Congress over the successful interception via rockets to destroy incoming enemy ICBM missiles.  He has many artifacts on permanent display in both The Smithsonian and Dulles Space Museum.  Including Pegasus. An underwing rocket launch vehicle that was very cost-effective for establishing both geo-stationery and orbiting satellites in space.  Around 2014 NASA gave him and his team a 4 day Accolade at The Cape in celebration of the final launch of the Delta 180 before the introduction of the succeeding new generation Delta 4.

He was preceded in death by his first wife, Dr. Patricia Holly Russell, and his second wife Beverly Hill Russell. He is survived by his wife Sonia Marlowe-Marais Russell, who has been a best friend who grew into her role as caretaker in the past few years. Children include Dr. Holly R. Summers, and her husband Dr. Michael Finley Summers, and their daughter Dr. Samantha Summers and husband Ryan Smythe. Also son, Dr. William Alton Russell, III his wife, Barbara Kemp Russell, and four grandchildren Dr. Samantha Ruth Summers and her husband Ryan Joseph Smyth, and Lauren Patricia Russell, JD, Dr. William Alton Russell IV and partner Dr. Wei-Hsiang Huang and Davis Russell. He is also survived by his step-children, Gary Dwayne Hill and his wife Dawn Hill, Debra Hill Neary, Steve Hill; and six grandchildren from his second marriage to Beverly Hill Russell, Rick Neary, Patrick Neary, Daniel Dwayne Hill and wife Catherine Kinsley Hill, Shane Allan Hill, Kristina Pearman and husband Matthew Pearman; and his two step-grandchildren, Matthew Pearman and Nathaniel Pearman.

William will be greatly missed by his loving family and friends.

Graveside services will be held 2 PM, Monday, February 26th, 2024 at South Florida National Cemetery.