Wilnore "Will" Kale Hanson, age 66, passed away on September 20, 2023 in Buford, Georgia. He was born on December 16, 1956 in Illinois to Wilnore Kale Hanson Sr. and Mildred R. Labak. He attended Hiawatha Elementary School in Berwyn and he graduated from Morton West High School in Berwyn in 1974. He then went on to a long and successful career at Equifax in Alpharetta, GA, where he was a distinguished member of the technical staff. He retired from the company in December of 2020. He was a member of the Cross of Life Lutheran Church in Roswell, Georgia.
He is survived by his wife, who he married on February 13, 1982, Laura Dykema Hanson. He is also survived by his children; Robert Hanson of Bolingbrook, IL; Donald Hanson and Alicia Piper, of Alpharetta, GA, as well as their children, Inara, Atlas, and Athena; Denise and Eric Pauley of Fort Wayne, IN; and mother-in-law, Beverly Dykema, of Plainfield, Illinois.
The family will receive friends at Roswell Funeral Home on Monday, September 25, 2023 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, with a service to follow. Family and friends will then go together to Greenlawn Cemetery for a 3:00 pm graveside service. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Girls Who Code at give.girlswhocode.com/willhanson
At the services, the Hanson family would like everyone to dress in Hawaiian shirts or bright colors to celebrate Will's life.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.roswellfuneralhome.com for the Hanson family.
Eulogy Written by Robert Hanson:
How do you put into words the story of a life as fascinating and complex as my father's? Born to an aircraft mechanic and a housewife in the city of Chicago, his youth was full of stories, both good and bad, from being picked on and having his lunch money stolen to his times at Hiawatha when he would change the classroom numbers down the hallway, causing confusion for new students trying to find their classrooms for the first time. He had a knack for frustrating his teachers, pointing out errors in their lessons and debating his perspective, almost always successfully. He also enjoyed spending time with his cousin on his family's farm in Minnesota, and snowmobiling. After graduating high school, he began his higher-level education, studying mechanical engineering, where, amongst other projects and studies, he helped develop an electro-mechanical fuel injection system which ultimately found its way into Ford Motor Company's production line in the Ford LTD sedan. His forays into automotive technology didn't stop there, as he also frequently found himself working on race cars, like his early 70's corolla station wagon. He told me about how he got it stuck in the entrance ramp to a McDonald's on Ogden Avenue, and also got caught doing burn outs up and down the city streets in Chicago and Cicero. That car and the relationships that surrounded it, ultimately led to him meeting his future wife of over 40 years. Although he never finished his college degree, he did ultimately find his life-long passion shortly after leaving college. He began work with computer programming, initially using punch cards for data entry, and later exploring high-end, industry-leading computer systems and finding different ways that they could be utilized and improved upon. As he continued to pursue his passion for computers and software development, he found himself working for a small Chicago-area company called CMSA, which ultimately became Market Knowledge Incorporated. His time with MKI afforded him many new opportunities, including the ability to travel the world and see new places, like the UK, Brazil, and Japan, as they rolled out their product offerings with clients internationally. As MKI grew, they eventually found themselves being bought out by Equifax, one of the big-three US credit reporting companies. At that point, he had a choice. He could take the easy route, take the money from his buyout and walk away, or follow his true passion, and relocate his family, now a family of 5, and move to Georgia to carry on his life's work with Equifax. We all know which path this man chose, never willing to settle for the easy short-term gain. And thus began the longest tenure of his career, 25 years working for Equifax. During his time working there, he worked on many projects and products, inlcuding one of his favorite to discuss: a product called First Search, which he was instrumental in creating and making profitable. During his tenure with Equifax, he found many opportunities to improve their products and hardware, always trying to improve system-wide efficiency and guarantee long-term success for any project he worked on; he was the problem-solver, a veritable "mountain mover," who got called upon any time a team hit a wall attempting to meet or exceed expectations. He had a knack for breaking down the problem, finding the flaw and resolving it in a way that not only solved the immediate issue, but ultimately improved the product as a whole. These situations gave him an opportunity to experience one of his other true passions: teaching. He had a way of simplifying and explaining his techniques and methods that was truly novel, and often allowed his contemporaries and subordinates to see things from a new perspective, to understand how his mind worked, and give them a glimpse of what made him so successful. Along the way, he also taught many life lessons to those around him. I remember one time, he and Don and I were driving along this road we used to call the "Snaky Road" that wove around and doubled back as it carved through dense treelines and preserved forests. All of a sudden, he pulled off the road and onto a gravel path on the side of the road, we wound our way back away from the road and came up to a clearing where someone had left a small campfire still burning. With no one in sight, no cars around and no reason for that fire to be left unattended, he took a half empty bottle of soda out of the car and doused the flame, guaranteeing it wouldn't spread out of the fire pit and to the surrounding area, then we got back in the car and drove off, back to our fun winding "snaky road." I didn't realize it at the time, but that moment would stick with me. It was a lesson that he taught me, without even saying anything. "Do the right thing, even when no one's watching;" a life rule that I still live by to this day. He used to take my brother and me fishing at Joe's pond in Palos; We'd go on nature walks near the Little Red School House in Willow Springs, and Old Grau Mill in Oak Brook. We'd go to arcades, and dad would head straight for the pinball machines, while my brother and I would play the various arcade games; undoubtedly fostering our affinity for video games to this day. One of our favorite things to do on the weekends was to just go out for a drive, crank classic rock and cruise. He taught us about bands like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and the Rolling Stones. And although he obviously enjoyed going fast, he also knew how to appreciate taking the scenic route; he understood and taught us that it wasn't always about the destination but enjoying the journey we had to take to get there. I think that the ultimate lesson that my siblings and I all learned was to give everything we did 100% of our effort, to be the very best that we could be at any task or job role or project that was offered to us. We were taught to focus on details, follow a consistent procedure and share the knowledge and experience we had gained with those around us; and ALWAYS strive to be better today than we were yesterday.
And with that, I know we have a few minutes left, so if anyone here has a story or a lesson or anything they want to share about how my dad impacted their life, I'd like to open the floor for that.
And in summation, I'd like to leave you all with this final thought to consider: knowing that my dad spent his life teaching others and striving to improve the lives of those around him, which I consider to be his legacy, when you leave here today, what can you do in your daily life to help carry on that legacy?
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