Bill and Shirley were flying back from the Penn State-Navy game on 20 September, 1964, when their single engine Cessna crashed into the fog-shrouded Tuscarora Mountains near Port Royal, PA.  They had been married a short four months. 

He was a test pilot at NAS Patuxent MD. Bill, from Fayetteville, NC, had entered the Academy via NAPS, after a two-year stint in the National Guard and the Navy.