ROGERS — William “Bill” James Austin

was born Sept. 20, 1942, in Boston, Mass., to Harold O Austin and Roberta (James) Austin. He passed away at The Waters of Rogers on July 11, 2020, exactly 24 years to the day after his father died.

Since his father was a career Navy man, Bill grew up experiencing life in several states and especially enjoyed the adventure of living in Hawaii when it was still a territory in the mid-1950s. Bill finished high school and lived for the next 30 years in the Long Beach, Calif., area, where he became a franchise owner of a Jack-In-The-Box restaurant.

He moved to Rogers in 1987 and continued in the food service industry by owning and operating two catering trucks. Later he moved into the construction field and established Affordable Seamless Guttering.

Bill was known for his big heart, his kindness, and his generosity. He enjoyed people and never met a stranger. Bill attended Faith Family Fellowship in Rogers and affirmed his faith in Christ for his salvation.

He is survived by brother Robert J. Austin of Williamsburg, Va.; sister Valerie Koday of Mercedes, Texas; sister Adrienne Austin of Rogers; daughter Dawn Lee Austin of Frisco, Colo.; and sons Matthew J. Austin and David J. Austin, both in California.

Bill’s family likes to think of him soaring heavenward as he leaves the confines of the wheelchair he needed for the last seven years since his stroke. In Bill’s youth he had considered being a pilot, and joined the Civil Air Patrol. He liked to quote this poem by the WWI pilot, John Gillespie Magee, and we share it, envisioning Bill’s soul rising from the limitations of his final years in the rest home:

High Flight

“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue

I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or ever eagle flew –

And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”

A graveside service for Bill will be at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 15, at Benton County Memorial Park in Rogers. Services are by Rollins Funeral Home of Rogers. Online condolences may be left at www.RollinsFuneral.com.