William Maurice Atwood, 87, passed away peacefully on April 22, 2025, in Lansdale, PA. He was surrounded by his loving family during his final moments.
Bill is survived by his wife, Margaret Raiss Atwood; his son William David Atwood, of New York, NY; his daughter, Marella Atwood Thorell, and son-in-law Scott Christopher Thorell, of Blue Bell, PA; his son John Daniel Atwood, and daughter-in-law Tara Bradley Atwood, of Los Angeles, CA; his grandchildren, Jack, Jules, Raiss, and Callie; his brother, Robert Atwood, and sister-in-law, Pauletta Atwood; his brother-in-law, George Raiss, and George’s wife Marty Raiss; his nephews, David and Jim Billings; and his nieces, Laura Billings and Molly Taylor. He was predeceased by his parents, Maurice Felix and Margaret Tully Atwood; as well as his sister Margaret Bauchspies; and his nephew Michael Billings.
Bill, also known as Dad, Uncle Bill, and Pop Pop, loved his family, his country, and his work and gave his very best to all three throughout his life.
He was a Florida beach boy who experienced the Cold War literally in Alaska. He was a suburban dad whose office was at one time a U.S. Navy cruiser in the cornfields of New Jersey. He was a humble, kind, funny, wise, warm, gentle man who brought strength and safety to America and its allies for decades as a leader in developing and instituting the nation’s missile defense systems.
Born in Jacksonville, FL, in 1938, Bill began his life of service as an altar boy, hall monitor, and Boy Scout in Jacksonville Beach. He joined the US Air Force in 1956, trained in San Antonio, TX, studied Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA, and was stationed in St. Lawrence Island, AK. There he intercepted, translated, and analyzed communications by the Soviet military. In one high-stakes exercise he took part in, U.S. fighter jets would fly along the border with Russia in the Bering Strait, then turn sharply into Soviet territory, and Bill and his team would assess the Soviets’ communication response.
Bill had another mission while he served in the Air Force: courting Margaret Raiss, known as Peggy, whom he had met in Jacksonville Beach, wooed by letter, and would propose marriage to on the beach there following his honorable discharge as a Senior Airman. After he graduated with a degree in mathematics from Jacksonville University (which he always promoted to his college-bound children and grandchildren), they married in April 1963 in Norfolk, VA.
His career began at the Naval Weapons Laboratory in Dahlgren, VA. Computer punched cards and slide rules were the tools of the day. Bill then joined RCA’s Missile and Surface Radar Division in Moorestown, NJ. (It’s best known by the public for the nearby famous 15-story-high “golf ball”—a radar site—and the “cornfield cruiser”—the 120-foot-high forward deckhouse of a nuclear strike class cruiser that served as a research and development site. Both are legendary surreal sights for locals as well as passing motorists on I-295 and the NJ Turnpike.)
There, Bill shortly began work on what would be his most important professional engagement and achievement. It was the new AEGIS combat and ballistic missile defense system designed for tracking and guidance. Today, it’s in use by the U.S. Navy as well as by Japan, Spain, Norway, South Korea, and Australia. As a rear admiral would later write in a tribute to Bill, “You are a committed patriot – and your work has kept our nation that much safer.”
Over the decades, Bill’s work on AEGIS took him around the world, including to 1970s southern California, where he and his family got to experience the mellower, more outdoorsy lifestyle and visit Malibu, Yosemite, San Francisco, and elsewhere. Most of those years, the family made their home in Moorestown, an idyllic suburb of Philadelphia once rated “Best Place to Live” by a national magazine.
In 2004, Bill retired from Lockheed Martin as Vice President, Sea-Based Missile Defense. He did rewarding work as an independent consultant afterward, moving to Medford, NJ, then to Bridgeville, DE.
It was the beautiful new Heritage Shores community that drew Bill and his wife there. “Lower slower Delaware” ironically brought high times with fast friends—their fellow “pioneers,” original residents who golfed, gabbed, dined, traveled, and generally savored senior life together. Golf remained a passion to the end—a favorite photo, though possibly not of Bill’s, showed him on a course in Longboat Key, FL, as the sun went down, looking into a water hazard after a shot landed his ball there.
Following a move to Manor House in next door Seaford, DE, where Bill and Peggy made more friends of the residents and staff, they found a new home in Brittany Pointe Estates in Lansdale, where they could be closer to their daughter and son-in-law.
Wherever he went, Bill never met a stranger. His positive outlook on life, unerring good judgment, strong moral character, and quick sense of humor brought others to seek his company, collaboration, and counsel. For his family, Bill was the greatest husband, father, grandfather, brother, brother-in-law, and uncle they could have ever hoped for.
If you would like to offer a remembrance, the family asks with appreciation that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Home of the Brave Foundation in Milford, DE. Bill dedicated himself to honoring and supporting the nation’s military veterans and he worked with this organization, among others, to furnish food, shelter, and counsel to them.
Family and friends are invited to attend Bill’s Funeral Mass on Monday, April 28, 2025, at 11:00 AM at Mary, Mother of the Redeemer Catholic Church, 1325 Upper State Rd, North Wales, PA, where there will be a Receiving time from 9:00 AM to 10:50 AM in the lobby prior to Mass. Family and friends are also invited to join a Remembrance and Luncheon celebrating Bill’s life immediately following Mass at Normandy Farm, 1401 Morris Road, Blue Bell, PA.