William “Bill” Jennings Cushman, Jr, 84, a life-long, native Houstonian, passed away unexpectedly at his home on Friday, May 29, 2020. He was born in Houston, to his parents, William J. Cushman, Sr. and Marguerite Cushman on Friday, December 13, 1935.
Bill was a proud graduate of Lamar High School Class of 1954. Following High School, he attended the University of Houston, where he completed a Bachelor’s of Science in Physics degree. He spent the next 32 years in a progressively responsible career working in Quality Assurance and Improvement as a QA Manager and Director for Texas Instruments, Input/Output, Compaq Computers, and Whirlwind Steel Buildings. He was friends with the founder of Compaq and began working with Compaq. His expertise in electronics and audio and visual technology was well known and respected. He counted among his friends a number of NASA Astronauts, whom he frequently helped with specific technology problems. He retired in 1996.
Bill’s love of electronics began at an early age and many people can recall his audio systems being so loud as a young man that his grandmother would often cringe at the volume, or they recall him fixing a non-working television at 13 years old. Bill was profoundly intelligent and this love of machinery and working parts was evidenced in other areas of his life as well, including his fascination with fast cars and motorcycles, including his Corvette with a racing engine and his Kawasaki 900Z1, which at the time was only one of three in the Houston area.
Bill was an avid pipe organ music lover and was a member of the Houston Organ Society, as well as being a member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). He later in life served as a contributing editor for Widescreen Review magazine. Bill’s philanthropic interests included supporting Covenant House and Boys Town, USA., where his generosity was unlimited.
Bill is survived by his immediate family, including his life-partner and husband, Lowell D. Ellefson, of the home. Theirs was a story that began on August 31, 1974 in Houston and they were officially married on September 6, 2019 and spent over forty-five years as a devoted couple. Bill is also survived by his brother-in-law, Darrell Ellefson, of Houston.
Funeral arrangements and the dignified care of Mr. Cushman have been entrusted to the professional staff of The Settegast-Kopf Company Funeral Directors @ Sugar Creek, A Dignity Memorial™ Provider.
A Celebration of Life with Pipe Organ music will be held at, one o’clock in the afternoon, on Thursday, June, eleventh, twenty-twenty, in the Chapel of The Settegast-Kopf Company Funeral Directors @ Sugar Creek, 15015 Southwest Freeway, Sugar Land, Texas 77478. The Celebrant will be Dr. Rick Ward-Harder, Ph.D.. The Committal, including final remembrances and interment will then follow at the historic Glenwood Cemetery in Houston, located at 2525 Washington, Ave, Houston, Texas, 77077
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