He was a 5th cousin of mine. Unfortunately we never met.
Rest in peace, Bill!

I had the pleasure of working with Bill at ETC  beginning around 2009. Bill always had a great story to tell and advice to give, especially those of us who were just starting our career journey. I remember Bill driving to the office even after the heater in his truck broke in the winter time. Thoughts and prayers to all of Bill's family. 

Bill was one of my first supervisors when I went to work at White Oak. We had to rotate through 3 different groups our first year, and my rotation in the hydroballistics facility working for Bill was easily the most rewarding. Little did I know then that my relationship with him would continue for more than 40 years, and I would be a beneficiary of both his technical acumen, as well as his infinite patience.
Bill was an engineer, pure and simple. There was no technical problem that the combination of Bill, and Jack Goeller, could not solve. Bill's very tangible contributions are still being felt by the Navy, in that the US Navy has unparalleled capabilities in its torpedoes, due in no small measure to the work Bill and others did on developing highly effective warheads.
However, as good as an engineer Bill was, he was an even better person. In my younger days I was not the most dependable employee, and Bill was one of the most understanding and patient bosses I had, who helped get me back on a good path career-wise. I know there are many engineers and others who worked for Bill, who marveled at his work ethic, and his seemingly-endless bucket of patience.
In our later years, I was very fortunate to have Bill work with us at ETC, and he did his usual outstanding job, always making sure our work was done thoroughly and professionally. His only real weakness, if you will, is that he sometimes could be too nice a guy. What a terrible attribute to have!!
I will miss Bill, and consider myself really blessed to have worked with, and gotten to know such a high quality human. I am looking for pictures, but did not want to tarry in providing my thoughts on Bill.

Bob Kavetsky

Bill was all about a celebration of life and its many challenges. He had an infectious laugh and sense of humor. I first met Bill in 1966 when I transferred from a development group in the main building at the Naval Ordnance Lab to a research group in the Ballistics division under Dr. Victor Dawson. Our boss was Jim Rand who was working on his PHD dissertation. Bill and I were learning how to perform dynamic compression and tensile tests of viscoelastic materials of which we knew nothing. This qualified us to attend a 2 day course in Boston on viscoelastic materials. At that time government travelers were granted a per diem expense of $16 per day for meals and lodging. The cost of lodging alone exceeded that amount. Bill had an idea to save money, “Let’s stay at the YMCA which is walking distance to the Prudential Center where the course will be given.” This turned out to be a challenging and funny experience. On the first night at the YMCA, the fire alarm went off at 2 a.m. and the firemen made us evacuate the building for an hour. The next night at 2 a.m. it happened again. Not much sleep in Boston, but Bill discovered Durgin-Park family style restaurant where we enjoyed local seafood.  This was our first trip together. We travelled to many places around the US during those first 5 years, 1966 to 1971. One of those places was Albuquerque, NM.  We had to be there for a meeting on Monday morning.  Bill suggested that we travel out to Las Vegas on Saturday to check out the casinos, the restaurants and entertainment and then onto Phoenix, AZ to visit his cousin who was a radio broadcaster.  We rented a motel room out on the Strip for $10 per night. We never used the motel room. We had a great time but no sleep.  There was also a trip to San Diego and Tijuana where we took a taxi and saw extreme poverty way beyond anything in US and were lucky to escape with our lives. 

Fred Stecher


Bill was all about a celebration of life and its many challenges. He had an infectious laugh and sense of humor. I first met Bill in 1966 when I transferred from a development group in the main building at the Naval Ordnance Lab to a research group in the Ballistics division under Dr. Victor Dawson. Our boss was Jim Rand who was working on his PHD dissertation. Bill and I were learning how to perform dynamic compression and tensile tests of viscoelastic materials of which we knew nothing. This qualified us to attend a 2 day course in Boston on viscoelastic materials. At that time government travelers were granted a per diem expense of $16 per day for meals and lodging. The cost of lodging alone exceeded that amount. Bill had an idea to save money, “Let’s stay at the YMCA which is walking distance to the Prudential Center where the course will be given.” This turned out to be a challenging and funny experience. On the first night at the YMCA, the fire alarm went off at 2 a.m. and the firemen made us evacuate the building for an hour. The next night at 2 a.m. it happened again. Not much sleep in Boston, but Bill discovered Durgin-Park family style restaurant where we enjoyed local seafood.  This was our first trip together. We travelled to many places around the US during those first 5 years, 1966 to 1971. One of those places was Albuquerque, NM.  We had to be there for a meeting on Monday morning.  Bill suggested that we travel out to Las Vegas on Saturday to check out the casinos, the restaurants and entertainment and then onto Phoenix, AZ to visit his cousin who was a radio broadcaster.  We rented a motel room out on the Strip for $10 per night. We never used the motel room. We had a great time but no sleep.  There was also a trip to San Diego and Tijuana where we took a taxi and saw extreme poverty way beyond anything in US and were lucky to escape with our lives. 
Fred Stecher

OBITUARY

William "Bill" M. Hinckley

August 29, 1943 – April 5, 2022

Robert E. Evans Funeral Home

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