William Gideon Hample

William Gideon Hample, who passed on November 29, 2007, was a busy person throughout his life, so busy that even those 60 years younger felt they couldn't keep up with him. At age 87, he remained an active member of the Navy League, Masons, Kern County Historical Society, Conference of California Historical Societies, Petroleum Production Pioneers and the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, in Bakersfield. Whew! He also loved to travel.

Bill was born December 23, 1919, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and he enjoyed taking trips to his native Canada. But Bill, who moved with his parents to California in 1923, also saw large expanses of the United States. Bill attended Texas A&M University and received his Bachelor's degree in 1943.

In 1944, while stationed in Seattle with the U.S. Navy, he married Martha Kathryn Fletcher. Bill served on the USS Sitkoh Bay and achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He then spent five years as a mechanical engineer at Boeing Airplane Co. in Washington state.

However, Bill was a Californian at heart. He and his parents, the late Grace Henderson Richardson and Carl Samuel Hample, lived in Long Beach and Huntington Park, and Bill graduated in 1938 from Bell High School in Bell. He and Martha, who were married until her passing in 1980, raised their children, Daniel, Richard and Deborah, in the San Fernando Valley, and he earned his Master's degree from USC. Bill worked 10 years as a mechanical engineer at Hughes Aircraft in Culver City and 25 years as an aerospace engineer at TRW in Redondo Beach.

He married Eleanor Maguire Lindsay in 1981, and they lived in Tarzana until 1986, when they settled in Bakersfield after Bill's retirement from TRW. Never one to rest on his laurels, Bill stayed busy with a family business laying out books for prepress.

He and Eleanor also trekked to such places as Great Britain and Ireland, from which they returned to regale relatives with tales of seeing Big Ben and kissing the Blarney Stone! Education always was of high importance to Bill. After watching one of his grandchildren graduate from college, Bill asked, "So have you thought about getting your Master's"?

Bill is survived by his wife, Eleanor; children, Daniel of Bakersfield and Richard of Albuquerque, NM, and Deborah of Monroe, WA; five grandchildren, Kathryn, Lauren and Jerri Rosenthal, and Bryce and Rae Anna Hample.