Wilhelm Ackerson

Ackerson, Wilhelm (Bill) Dean, 87, passed away January 1st, in Tucson, AZ. Bill was born May 17, 1920, in Joplin, Missouri, the eldest child of Gretchen and John Ackerson. Bill went to school in Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas, joined Army Air Corps at the start of World War II and served as an Air Traffic Controller in Cairo and Casablanca. Bill married Alice Forsythe in 1944, and worked as an aeronautical engineer while raising two daughters in Wichita, Ks. After retiring from Cessna Aircraft in 1982, he and Alice began spending winters in Tucson. He moved to Tucson in 1997 after Alice died and volunteered for several years at the Pima County Air Museum and served on the board of the homes association at Wagons West RV Park. Bill will be buried, with Alice, at the National Military Cemetery in Fort Scott, Kansas at a later date. Bill is survived by his daughters, Carol Hemenway, Colorado; Gretchen Ackerson, Florida; nieces, Ellen Finney, Arizona; Janice Compton and nephew James Compton of California. Downing Lahey Mortuary East. Bill will be buried, with Alice, at the National Military Cemetery in Fort Scott, Kansas at a later date.