William McKenna

William Andrew McKenna, aged 92, died peacefully on February 11, 2018, at WellStar Hospice in Alpharetta, Georgia. He was born on July 5, 1925, in Akron, Ohio, to Earl and Edna (Dirker) McKenna, and was the second of three children. His time growing up was simple but memorable, much of it spent outdoors. As a boy living on the Portage Lakes south of Akron, he traveled to his summer job at Longworth’s Grocery Store by rowing his small boat across Long Lake Channel. His family’s house had no indoor plumbing until his adolescent years, so his boyhood baths were long swims in the channel.

At nearby Coventry High School, Bill was class president all four years, starting quarterback and punt returner on the football team, captain and ace push-shooter on the basketball team, and a two-year National Honor Society student. He was an active member of the choral and speech clubs, played the starring role in his senior play, The Antics of Andrew, and was lead ballad singer in the musical production finale of the Coventry Minstrels.

After graduating from high school in 1943, Bill enlisted in the Army Air Forces. He completed preflight training in San Antonio, gunnery training in Harlingen, Texas, advanced navigation training in San Marcos, Texas, and final cadet training in Lexington, Kentucky. Bill then entered into active service as a Second Lieutenant, 8th Army Air Corps (Navigator). He finished navigational missions training at Pueblo Army Air Base, Colorado, preparing him for subsequent cross-Atlantic navigations of B-17 and B-29 bombers in the European theater of World War II.

Upon his military discharge in December 1945, Bill enrolled at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and received a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He quickly put his education to work as a restaurant assistant at the Stouffer Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, where he met and married Rita Jean Lyons on May 12, 1950. Rita predeceased Bill in 2015 after 65 years of marriage.

In 1952, the year he and Rita gave birth to their first child, James, Bill joined the marketing team at Chicago-based Rheem Manufacturing Company, the largest producer of water heaters in North America. He parlayed his offbeat humor and engaging personality into a successful 36-year career with the company, where he rose through the ranks from a territory salesman to central region manager to pricing and documentation administrator to national sales manager. In addition to his sales and management accomplishments, he was known for his skill at throwing horseshoes and spinning rhymes and tall tales at assorted Plumbers’ Picnics.

During his married life, Bill lived in Chicago, Omaha, Louisville, Indianapolis, and Munster, Indiana, before moving in 1979 to Dunwoody, Georgia. He and Rita were founding members of All Saints Catholic Church in Dunwoody.

Bill was an avid reader, sports and big band music fan, golfer, fisherman, birdwatcher, and gardener. He and Rita cherished their mobile home on Lake Lanier, north of Atlanta, where they swam, boated, fished, socialized, and entertained their out-of-town family members and other guests.

Bill is survived by six children and their families: James McKenna and spouse Joanell of Evanston, Illinois, grandchildren Matthew and Marielle; Jeff McKenna and spouse Christine of Duluth, Georgia, granddaughters Erin Scott, Rachel Christopher, and Megan, great granddaughters Elise and Hannah Christopher; Susan McKenna and spouse Suzan Abramson of Orlando, Florida, granddaughter Allison Sokol; Karen McKenna and spouse Geoffrey Glauser of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, grandsons Stephen and Brett Glauser; David McKenna and spouse Marjorie of Marietta, Georgia, grandsons Peter and Charlie; and Thomas McKenna and spouse Jana Moore of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, grandchildren Morgan McKenna and Kai Moore. Bill is survived by his sister Ruth (McKenna) Junker of Phoenix, Arizona, and brother Robert of Birmingham, Alabama.

A Mass in Bill's honor will be celebrated at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, at All Saints Catholic Church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to All Saints Catholic Church, 2443 Mount Vernon Road, Dunwoody, GA 30338 or to Georgia Community Support & Solutions, 1945 Cliff Valley Way, Suite 220, Atlanta, GA 30329.