William Bill Sturm

WILLIAM "BILL" E. STURM William was born in Middlefield, Ohio on June 14, 1933 to the late Jennie May Strong and the late Thomas Earl Sturm. He is survived by his brother Jack Sturm of Cleveland, Georgia; Shirley, his loving wife for 50 years; daughters Patricia and husband Milton Mifflin of Dayton, Texas; Susan Payne-Pimentel and husband Christian Pimentel of Dallas, Texas; and son Erik and his wife Diana Sturm of Fulton, Missouri; grandchildren Amanda Michelle and Kevin Miles Mifflin and Melinda Antoinette and Courtney Elizabeth Payne. His biography follows:Middlefield High School graduateUSAF radio fundamentals & ground radio maintenance school graduateB.S. � Electrical Engineering � Tri-State CollegeServed his country honorably in the United States Air Force for four years.Worked with Philco Corporation as radio relay equipment site engineer on a mountaintop in Morocco for a year.Worked with Philco Ford Corporation for five years as an Electronic Engineer for the USAF Ground Electronics Engineering Installation Agency (GEEIA) at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma and Griffis AFB, New YorkBill enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the aerospace industry. He was extremely fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to make and be part of manned space flight history. His aerospace career spanned 34 years of service with Ford Aerospace, Rockwell Space Operations Company, and United Space Alliance. He worked on five National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) manned spaceflight programs (Gemini through Shuttle) and manned the Johnson Spacecraft Center (JSC) mission control center (MCC) during 49 space missions. During the Apollo Program Bill worked in the Lunar Module (LM) Branch and participated in man's first landing on the moon (Apollo 11). The Apollo 13 aborted lunar landing mission required a complete rewrite to the astronaut's checklists and to piece together a totally new flight plan in real time for the safe recovery of the flight crew. The Apollo 13 mission was considered by many as the flight control team's finest hour of which Bill was a part. Bill moved from flight controller engineering support to development of MCC requirement documents for Shuttle payloads, developing the Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) Capabilities Document, and became the ISO 9000 Document Coordinator for Spaceflight Operations. Bill's persistence and dedication in "doing things the right way" and challenging radical departures while allowing for innovation, were an inspiration to all with whom he was associated. He received numerous awards and recognition from NASA and his employers including NASA's Silver Snoopy Award presented to him by Astronaut Bill Gregory.Bill was proud to have been part of the team that advanced the nations capability in space and wrote space history. Bill was happiest when he could sit down and read a good book, work a jig saw puzzle, write a book, or help his family members in their various projects. He loved staying home and taking care of his two Scottish Terriers. He was a wonderful husband, loving father, and will really be missed by all the people that knew him. In lieu of flowers please make donations to your favorite charity.