This is a mixture of Bill's own words about himself and added information to fill in the gaps.

I am a vagabond who has lived in 23 different homes since birth. I was born in Des Moines, Iowa where my father was attending medical school at the Des Moines Still College of Osteopathy . When I was 2-months old, we moved to Denver, Colorado, where my father did his internship and residency at the Lamb Memorial Hospital . This was during World War II . Following Dad's residency, we moved to Eads , Colorado until about 1951 , when we moved to Fowler , Colorado.  In 1958 , we moved from Fowler to Walsh , Colorado.

I met my future wife in Walsh. ( Bill's sister, Lynn, informed Bill one day, "I've found your wife, Bill," and as it was Bill's nature to obey others, he followed her advice. ) We were sophomores in high school at the time and on February 14, Valentine's Day, 1959 , we made "going steady" official by exchanging rings. ( Bill & Shirley were voted "Mr. & Miss WHS" at their senior prom .) We went off to the same college after high school graduation to Colorado State University. We spent two years there. I was sort of having a lot of fun my freshman and sophomore years at college and didn't concentrate too much on my studies. When I got more serious about being an engineer , my reputation had already been established as a "goof off." It became clear that I had to get out of that environment and start fresh at another school . So, in the summer of 1963, Shirley and I got married , moved from Fort Collins to Boulder, Colorado, and I became a student at the University of Colorado. We finished our bachelor's degree there in 1966 and master's degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1967.  ( Bill and Shirley were engaged on Thanksgiving 1962, and they sat down with Shirley's mother, Virgil, and ordered their wedding bands from the hardware store catalog. Above one of their wedding pictures Shirley wrote, "I had 600 dollars and a car, Bill had 300 dollars of debt.)

( While at Boulder their first child, Debbie, was born in 1965. ) In 1967 we moved from Boulder, Colorado, to the Los Angeles, California , area. We lived in Redondo Beach for about 12 years total . I got my PhD in Systems Science at UCLA in 1972 . ( Bill said that his high school science teacher, Mr. Goddard, was his motivator that set him on a path in science. )  I worked at a company called TRW for a professor I had met at CU. The company's name changed to Northrop Grumman before I retired at the end of 2011 . ( While in California, between the years 1970 and 74, they completed their family with the birth of Michael, Kelly, and Jodie.)

In the 1970s , Bill took a job in Scotland and moved Shirley and the family there. They were there on two separate tours , lasting about eight years total . On the first tour they lived near the R.A.F. Edzell base, and this is where their patriotic spirit grew . On the second tour, the Stoner's lived in Montrose, and the kids attended Scottish schools. The Stoner family still keeps in touch with several Navy and Scottish friends they met during that time.

In 1985 we moved back stateside. So, I could travel to Los Angeles from Washington, or to Washington from Los Angeles, but no matter what, I was going to travel. So, I decided to move where my wife was raised and where we graduated from high school…Walsh, Colorado.  Shirley and Debbie moved ahead of the family to oversee the construction of our new home that we had designed while in Scotland. ( This home Bill called 'North Fork' and it was his haven, heaven on earth. So the vagabond finally called one place home for a total of 40 years, half his life, and the three youngest Stoners graduated from the same high school that Bill and Shirley had in 61.)

My older brother, Vernon DALE, 13 months older than me, was born in June before December 7, 1941. I was born in 1942, and my younger sister, Lynne Adaire, followed in 1945.  Lynne passed away early in life, at the age of 44. A virus had deteriorated her heart valves.  They had been replaced once, but the problem resurfaced, this time killing her quickly. Both Bill's mother and father died at relatively young ages…Adaire at the age of 48 from an aneurysm, and Doc Stoner at the age of 66 from a heart attack. He lost his beloved Shirley in May of this year.

Bill described himself as a child as being "quiet, reserved, inquisitive, interested in knowing, discovering, and learning about everything." He was a walking Wikipedia!  Rarely did he have to look up information. He could pull it from his memory bank. He enjoyed all sports but REALLY loved throwing the discus and shotput during junior high and high school.  He wanted so badly to be an astronaut from the time he was a little boy through high school, but his eyes were so bad he could not qualify, so he settled for becoming an engineer!  He loved his profession, and it loved him. He worked on top secret government projects all his professional years.  Among his most prestigious Awards were:

• 2003 Pioneer of the Year at the National Recognizance Office (NRO)

Which required pioneering innovative breakthroughs to national reconnaissance: (conceiving/developing/fabrication/operation of sensors, supporting systems, techniques and methods which changed the direction and scope of the NRO; these breakthroughs had to be a " first and only " and " time-tested" (at least 5 years) for its historical impact.

• 1986 A letter of recognition from President Ronald Reagan

During his retirement, he wrote an advanced math book, Cousins of the Brachistochrome… The 100 Yard Dash in Mathematics , by James W. Stoner PhD, completed this spring after two years of ill health.  It will be loved by engineers and applied mathematicians. Bill's many professional and military colleagues, his friends, and his family will miss his smile, wit, and excitement about life. May he and Shirley enjoy eternity together.

Bill and Shirley's human legacy include:  daughter Debra & Michael Iverson; son Michael & Missy Stoner; daughter Kelly & David Reyes, and daughter Jodie & James Yager; 12 grandchildren; 9 great grandchildren.