A proud graduate of University of Tennessee Knoxville with a B.S. in Business Administration and post-graduate work in Transportation, he was the retired Manager of Transportation, Pricing, and Auto Services for Firestone Tire and Rubber Plant, working at the Memphis plant and the Akron, Ohio office. He then worked for Greater South Traffic Nationwide as the Assistant Pricing Manager into his golden years.
One thirty-second Choctaw chief Bill’s favorite activities were anything to do with University of Tennessee Athletics, bird watching, joking with his coffee buddies, taking car drives to visit a long time college friend, fishing, and whittling.
He is survived by daughter Susan Powers of Lexington, Kentucky, son Tom Powers (Jennifer) of Arlington, Tennessee, stepdaughters Amy Todd (Wade) of Smyrna, Tennessee, and Angie Taylor of Germantown, Tennessee; grandchildren Landon Powers, Avery Powers, Lauren Todd, Gabrielle Todd, Isaac Todd, Wesley Todd, Nelson Taylor, Victoria Taylor, and Alexis Taylor. Bill was preceded in death by wives Barbara Ann Umensetter and Alice “Connie” Kennedy and by brothers Ira Calvin and Robert Dyer.
Funeral services will be at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday June 26 at Memphis Funeral Home, 5599 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee with visitation beginning at 12:00 p.m. Entombment will be in Louisville, Kentucky at Evergreen Cemetery and Garden Mausoleum, 4623 S. Preston at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday June 28.
Contributions are suggested to the American Heart Association, University of Tennessee Athletics, or St. Labre Indian School.
