William Watson Doolittle Jr.

William Watson Doolittle, Jr., 97, of Glastonbury, CT, passed away peacefully on August 13, 2013 having lived out his years in good health in the house he and his wife Elsie had built in 1941. Elsie predeceased William (Bill), having died on December 23, 2011. Bill was born on November 11, 1915 in Binghamton, NY to William W. Doolittle, Sr., and Mildred Stephenson. His family moved to Albany, NY, in 1920, to Kingston, NY in 1930, and then to Elmira, NY in 1931 following his father’s assignments as a district manager for the New York Telephone Company. Bill graduated from Elmira Free Academy in 1934. He then entered Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., majoring in Mechanical Engineering, joining Sigma Nu fraternity and graduating in June 1938. After graduating from college, he worked briefly for Agfa Film Company in Binghamton, N.Y., and then took an engineering position in 1939 with Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company in East Hartford, Connecticut. While at Cornell, he met Elsie Harrington of Schoharie, N.Y. They were married in July, 1940 and settled in Glastonbury, CT. He continued working at Pratt & Whitney for 41 years, rising to the position of Manager of the PWA Service School and retiring in 1981. His engineering career spanned the war time development of massively powerful radial piston engines, the dawn of jet aviation, and the advent of high performance propulsion for military and commercial aviation. He most enjoyed working directly with the company’s customers to provide the unique technical training necessary to assure safe and dependable flight in a wide spectrum of aircraft applications. Bill cultivated an interest in sailing at the age of twelve by converting a row boat and sailing the ten mile length of Owasco Lake in central New York State. Later on he introduced his family to the sport and spent countless hours in day sailing and racing his Lightning class boat on Long Island Sound. When the boat was put away for the season, he turned to iceboat sailing for thrilling winter fun at Bantam Lake, CT. Skiing at Killington was his other winter enjoyment. In retirement, Bill had a passion for hobbies that demanded extreme diligence and craftsmanship. He claimed that the N-scale model railroad that filled his basement was the “largest in the state”. He then turned his efforts to model ship building, serving a term as President of the Connecticut Marine Model Society. He was particularly interested in researching seldom modeled ships and building models from scratch based on their historical records. In the course of his research, he compiled a history of early coastal ship building in Glastonbury. Bill was a lifelong member of the Glastonbury Exchange Club and a member of the Glastonbury Historical Society. Since about 1985 he and Elsie served as Co-Presidents of the Cornell Alumni Class of 1938. On his father’s side, Bill was an eleventh generation descendent of Abraham Doolittle who arrived at Massachusetts Bay colony in 1640, and on his mother’s side, a twelfth generation Mayflower descendent of John Alden and Priscilla Mullens. Bill is survived and will be dearly missed by son William W. Doolittle III and his wife Barbara Spence Doolittle of Ann Arbor, MI, daughter Harriet D. Burrell and her husband George W. Burrell of Peru, NY, son John H. Doolittle and his wife Marie McKew Doolittle of Mountain View, CA, and daughter Diana M. S. Doolittle and her husband Harry M. Horn of Salem, CT, and eight grandchildren, Krista Rock, Victoria Duley, Abigail O’Haver, Anne Marques, Emilie Doolittle, Jane Doolittle, John S. Doolittle, Amelia Horn and nine great grandchildren. A private memorial is planned for the family. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in his memory may be made to the Mitchell Farm Equine Retirement, Inc., http://www.mitchellfarm.org/Donations.html.