William Huntley

Old Lyme — William Paul Huntley, 69, of 8 Wildwood Drive, Old Lyme, passed away on Monday, June 26, 2017, at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital after a long, courageous battle with cancer.

He was born on Jan. 16, 1948, in Meriden, the son of the late Paul William and Marjorie H. Huntley. He was married to Loisann Brookman on Dec. 26, 1970.

William is survived by his wife, Loisann; his daughter, Meredith of Cambridge, Mass.; his sister, Paula Carlstrom and her husband, Ronald Carlstrom, of South Meriden; and his brother, Peter Huntley and his wife, Miriam Huntley, of St. Augustine, Fla. He is also survived by nephews, nieces, grand-nephews, and a grand-niece.

William worked for 32 years at the Naval Underwater Systems Center in New London and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, R.I. as an electrical engineer retiring in 2003. During his career, he distinguished himself as a top design engineer responsible for the development of innovative early warning receivers for submarine periscopes. He was awarded many patents for his work for the Navy.

His love of engineering kept him in the lab doing design work well into his career before taking a position leading a branch of engineers supporting the development of submarine electronic warfare systems. He was a well respected designer and supervisor as well as a natural mentor of many young engineers over his career.

From childhood, he was a member of the Huntley National Association and served as president of the organization 1995 and 1996. He served HNA in many capacities, including maintaining a database of members for many years. He will be sorely missed by the HNA faithful.

He was a beloved member of the BeeBee Dairy’s Breakfast Club in Mystic, and enjoyed the banter with friends and his cousin, Virgil Huntley, now 100 years old.

In retirement, he loved his daily visit to the East Lyme Aquatic Center at the high school, swimming 50 lengths of the pool every day, and visiting with his “swimming buddies.” You all meant so much to him!

He loved maintaining his home and his yard, but his true passion in life was to know “how things work.” He could never resist taking things apart and putting them back together again. This curiosity sustained and interested him throughout his life and illness. Currently sitting on his workbench is a large, flat screened TV he saved from the dump and was fixing at the time of his death.

An informal memorial gathering will be held at his favorite place, his home, at a later date.