William Martin Gacy Sr.

Bill was born in 1934, the year of the Great Dust Bowl in Redds Mill, Pennsylvania to immigrant parents from Hungary, Andrew Gacy and Anna Pezek. Bill was in the Navy during the Korean War and after he left the service, he worked as a bartender and owned an Esso gas station, for which he won several awards. Bill then became a welder, earning a number of welding practice and engineering certificates. Some of the projects he worked on over his thirty-year career include pill stamping machines and municipal waste treatment facilities.

On September 9, 1961, he married William Linda Marquise Gates, one of three free-spirited sisters from nearby Finleyville. After a ‘Gift of the Magi’ Christmas where Bill secretly gave up cigars for Linda and Linda accepted his habit and bought him a (final) box of cigars, they went on to raise two sons, Bill Jr. and Marc in eastern Pennsylvania. Later, after many vacations that led the family across all lower 48 states and parts of Canada, they moved to Jacksonville, Florida, fulfilling a lifelong dream.

Bill also enjoyed activities close to home, especially family gatherings with steaks and brats, playing horseshoes well into the evening, or providing game nights with pizza and iced tea. Throughout his life, Bill loved automobiles, owning upwards of 150 vehicles over his lifetime, including a ’55 Chevrolet, a convertible ’63 Chevy Nova, and a number of Suburbans. In later years, Linda and Bill were avid fans of local theater, being regulars at Jacksonville’s Alhambra Dinner Theatre, and enjoyed both the classics and modern productions, particularly musicals.

Bill was preceded in death by his wife Linda earlier this year and survived by son Bill Gacy, Jr. and wife Lynn, son Marc Gacy and wife Sonja Toutenhoofd, and grandchildren BJ, Tynan, Shawn, Luca, and Nicola.