William Gilfillan Whitton

William “Bill” Gilfillan Whitton passed away suddenly and unexpectedly October 10, 2021 and has passed on to be with The Lord. We take solace in the hope of being reunited in eternity and certainly by reminding ourselves of the abundant blessings our family has received in our lives.

Bill was born and grew up in Brooklyn and in 1936 he met the love of his life Barbara MacKenzie Whitton while they were still in high school. His parents were from Glasgow, so Barbara's MacKenzie blood cemented our Scottish heritage which played a big part in the families lives. After a couple of years in the USMC he left the service at the Marine Air Corps Station at Cherry Point as the youngest Sergeant on the base to return home to be with his young family. He worked for eight years attending night school at Pratt Institute to get a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

We joined the rest of the family in Old Bridge, NJ in '64 and brother Bill was born in '65. He worked designing medical equipment for New Brunswick Scientific. In an adventurous spirit he took a job in Campinas, Brasil where he helped evaluate food processing equipment and even taught refrigeration at the local university. When we returned after 2 1/2 years in 1971 New Brunswick Scientific offered him a sales position based in Houston, which is where the whole family lives now.

Bill built a reputation in the scientific and medical research community here over his years providing equipment important to their work with NBS and later with Scimetrics in Stafford. His greatest creation was in the founding of Totalab, which was formed to build modular bio-containment laboratories that are difficult to construct using traditional on-site techniques.

His most remarkable legacy is his loving family and Bill is survived by his wife, Barbara, sons Russell and Bill, daughter-in law Denise Whitton, 4 grandchildren Kendra Whitton Folh and her husband Jim, Kristopher Whitton and his wife Kim, Keith Whitton, and Will Whitton), 10 great-grandchildren (Jordyn, Kamryn, Jacob, and Jax Folh; Kerri, Emma, Peyton, Melody, Addison, and Ella), and 1 great-great-granddaughter Kaylee.

Celebration of Life services will be held on at New Hope Presbyterian Church, 1350 N Mason Rd, Katy, TX 77449, at 3PM, Sunday Oct. 17th) for all who knew the man so many called a 'gentle genius'.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

– John 16:3