William Joseph Masters

Masters, William Joseph, age 97, was born Dec. 14, 1921 in Atlanta, Georgia and passed away on Jan. 20, 2019 in Mesa, AZ. He was preceded in death by his wife, Kathie, son Larry Masters, sister and brother-in-law Mary and Bob Colbert and nephew Bill Colbert. Survivors include his children; Rick (Mary Lou) Masters, Marilyn (Brian) McLean, Chris (Walt) Masters-Moore, Terri (Ron) Smith, Sharon (Ron) Meeks, Mike (Linda) Masters, and Matt Masters, 17 Grandchildren, numerous Great Grandchildren, and beloved nephews Bob & Denny and niece Adele. William served in the Navy during WWII as a radioman. He was self-employed at Reliable Auto Parts. Mr. Masters was an avid fisherman and hunter. Scoutmaster of BS Troop 707 for 15 years in Landover, MD. Family will receive friends Friday, Jan. 25th at 3:00 pm. Memorial Service at 4:00 pm at Advantage Melcher Chapel of the Roses, 43 S. Stapley Dr., Mesa, AZ 85204. Suggested memorials to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Life story shared by William Masters

Experiences and memories of my childhood and upbringing begin with the influences of my parents, siblings and where I was brought up. My dad, Albert William Maseates, was in the army during World War I in the 82nd division. He was mentioned in a book about the 82nd division. My mom, Sylvie Gailmard, was a gentle southern woman who met Albert at a USA dance before he was deployed to Mexico to chase Pancho Villa out of Southwestern states.

I was born in Atlanta, Georgia on December 14th, 1921. I lived up in New Hampshire between the time I was 2 and 4 years old. My dad managed a group of farms up there outside of Walpole, Keene, near the border with Vermont. My brother was born and died as an infant. My sister, Mary Frances, and I both played and fought together. My dad fished with us once in a stream. He caught some minnows for us by throwing some rocks upstream. This was a great memory.

Mary's cat killed my frog and I dropped a rock on her cat. This was not something I remembered but something I was told! I remember when a cow broke its leg - Dad was bringing a dead cow up the lane on a stone boat. This intrigued Mary and I, so we pulled each other around on a rug. I remember chasing a mouse through a carpet - Mama was cleaning a house so she rolled up a rug. Mary and I took a mouse out of the mouse trap and scared it back and forth from one end of the carpet to the other.

My dad lost his left thumb by it getting caught in a rock crusher. At that point, he was no longer capable of caring for the farms. The farmer, Baldwin, paid for his doctor bills, gave him a rifle, shotgun as well as some cash and so the family moved to DC. Mary and I stayed at our Grandma's house in New Jersey while Mom and Dad straightened out their living situation in DC. I remembered going out and playing in the snow.

After we moved to DC, my father, Albert William, became the farm manager for Blue Plains. Farm managers take care of the crops, farm animals and staff, like a foreman. I remembered my 4th birthday there. Blue Plains was a house for the infirmed (old folks). Blue Plains was a self-sustaining farm. There were retired white Bergeron fire horses living on the farm - Any time a siren went off they came running!

My family lived on the bottom floors. The man who lived above us made dandelion wine and chewed leaf tobacco. He tried to talk me into chewing leaf tobacco. I was only 4 years old at the time!

We had a prize bull that was kept for breeding. One time he got out and my dad had to use rocks and a shovel to get him to go back into the stall. The bull charged dad so my dad hit the bull with a shovel.

When I was 5, Dad got job at Chantilly Farms (Dairy) in Fairfax Virginia. I remember going across the street to play on the swing. It was there that I learned about mistletoe, kissed a girl and ran home. My family teased me for years about that!

The job at Chantilly Farms provided a little house and a coal burning stove. It got pretty cold in the winter. Mary and I ran down to the stove after we woke up. As might be expected, my mother got tired of the cold weather and wanted to move. We moved to Arlington and my mother, Sylvie, convinced Albert that he could probably work on cars since he already was used to repairing farm equipment.

I still hadn't started school yet. It was there I learned about chiggers while picking wild blackberries. They are like ticks but a whole lot smaller. I remember a coal furnace in the basement and coal loosely piled on the floor of the basement which always had water. I stuck a finger in an empty light socket after being dared to do so by the Krebs' boy. The Krebs family lived next door. We lived near the old Navy radio station which is now occupied by Arlington Towers. It was here that my father, Albert, met Walter Clark, a barnstormer pilot, who flew a single engine two winged bi-plane.

Albert and Walter formed a partnership and opened up a car repair shop. The car shop was a couple of stalls in a big storage garage on Church Street, between 14th and 15th streets near S and T streets. They hired Bill Trapp as a mechanic. We moved to DC between 4th and D streets, Northeast and we lived in a walk up flat. In the beginning, I still recall that Dad took street cars to get to work. The business grew fast and rented a building on 2129 14th Street, Northwest. It was originally a livery stable selling hay and grain. It had an elevator with 3 floors. The 3rd floor had a body-shop, 2nd floor was where most of the repairs were done and 1st floor was for light repairs.

My family then moved to 14th and W address where I started school. I attended St Paul's Academy (K-12) which was a school nearby. I met Billy Trapp when I was 7 years old. Billy's dad was my dad's shop foreman. I did not go to school with Billy. We got so close that we were like brothers. At that time they were building Meridian Park (5 blocks long, 1 block wide). The building included a reflecting pool. I would roller skate around in this pool before it had any water in it. We had a great time playing around the construction area. I also remembered learning to swim - Mom enrolled me in a swimming class at the YMCA. Later on, I was glad she did because I had to learn to swim for boy scouts.

My adolescent years include so many fond memories. I joined the boy scouts. At 14, I made First Class. I had a paper route delivering the Washington Daily news. Unfortunately, I had to quit scouting in order to make collections on Friday nights. In 9th grade, I was among 6 guys who volunteered to be in the first cooking class available to men. I did well baking cakes. I was especially good at cooking seafood such as fried oysters. I dipped them in an egg wash and then seasoned cornmeal before frying them. Yum! I got into trouble with teacher because I told the teacher not to "ever stick a fork into an oyster".

At the end of the year, the school had a father-son meal which was a great memory because my dad took the time out of his extremely busy schedule to attend. At that time, I thought I might like to be a short order cook. After I got into high school, I took a sociology class. I had to prepare a career plan looking at rewards and costs After seeing the costs of being a cook, long hours and low pay, I decided that I should look into other things. I was not a good student because I was not interested in most of those pursuits. On the other hand, my mother did care about those things so she directed me to take certain classes like French, Shorthand and Typing. I did enjoy working with my hands. I transferred to tech school in high school that had machine shop and drafting. I earned my lunch money by drafting jobs other students paid me to do. My fellow students didn't enjoy doing the lettering and numbers. I did well in machine shop. I enjoyed it and was good at it. The shop teacher taught Navy personnel at night at the tech school. They made barrels for cannons that could take days to make. The civilians working in the Navy yard came in and learned how to use the small tools. I would go in at night for extra credit. I taught civilians working as machinists how to sharpen their tool bits. Shop 13 specialized in miscellaneous work (lathes, drill presses, milling machines and shapers). Most of the guys attending night school were not lucky enough to be in Shop 13. I graduated from high school in June 1940.

The beginning of my early adulthood

I put in an application to work at the Navy yard and in December of 1940 and I was hired as an apprentice. The first week there I had two girls propose to me because I was making $20 a week. I decided not to date them! I started on day shift, then swing shift, then night shift. I met Guy Appel who had just started as a scoutmaster. Guy was one year ahead of me. Guy asked me to be an assistant scout master.

Billy Trapp and I enlisted in the Navy together. Billy failed the physical but got into the Army Air corps. He was in training to be a tail gunner. The last time I saw him was at Tyndall Field in Panama City, Florida: I had already passed radio school and was a Third class Petty officer (equivalent to Army sergeant) so we could not bunk together. We spent the weekend together but never saw each other after that. His plane was shot down over Germany.

Wedding Memories

Kathie and I were married on June 8th, 1945 in Little Rock Arkansas at St. Joseph's church. As Kathie was walking down the aisle the altar boy's dog ran out and sat on her gown trail catching a ride, but Kathie was determined and did not stop! Kathie's dad was the chief engineer for Marion Hotel in Little Rock. Her mom was in Pensacola. Mama Ford as well as Mary, my sister, attended. My best man was Don Titus; we had both shipped out at the same time. Don and I were on leave from the Navy so that I could get married. Mary, Don, Kathie and I had spent some time together before the wedding. We were married on Friday and went back to DC and then finally Annapolis which was my work location.

Values and beliefs

Faith. I was raised as a Catholic and I know that Jesus came down to save the entire world from the destruction it was heading toward. I believe in treating others well and fairly. Treat others with equality and honesty. Don't look down on people just because they think differently. Help out anyone you can whenever you can. Scouting says, "a friend to all and a brother to every scout".

Thoughts I would like to share with my children and grandchildren

If they have the same beliefs and values that I have, they will be guided by these principles. If they use their best judgment in following these guidelines, that is all I could wish for or ask.

Influential books

In Non-fiction, I read just about anything I could pick up. One summer I went cover to cover through a whole stack of Encyclopedias. A lot of that knowledge is still with me.

Fiction, I started as a very young boy (Horatio Alger): Phil the Fiddler and Tom the telegraph boy. They were my Dad's books discussing what boys were doing at the time. Tom Swift - Tom Swift and his Chest of Secrets. Tom Swift and his Electric Rifle. These things were thought of a long time ago (e.g. Lasers) and eventually came to pass. Mark Twain - Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, Jumping Frogs in Calaveras County, California.

It taught you to never give up on any ideas that sound ridiculous because something like this would eventually show up in real life.

Dick Tracy and his wrist radio. Buck Rodgers in the 25th century had a flying belt that had rockets on it.

Influential Films-

Tarzan was exciting. Cliff-hanging westerns at the movies that continued every Saturday. Most of those for me were just light entertainment.

Words of Wisdom

Humor. Humor is absolutely necessary, you couldn't live without it. Never take yourself very seriously. Look for humor in everything and look for the brighter side of everything. Even bad things happen for a good reason.

What happened when I moved to Arizona as an example- Heart attack limited my ability to fly but it was the best thing that could have happened to me.

Faith

Keep your faith in God. He is watching and loving you always.

Memorable and influential Life Experiences

Meeting Billy Trapp at age 7 and his friendship and losing that friendship were significant events.

I knew I wanted to be a machinist and working in the Navy yard. I never would have met Kathie. I took an aptitude test and finished the test in 30 minutes instead of 2 hours. I got all the answers right except I missed adding a column of figures. The sergeant told me to stay and not get on a bus (probably for an DeS assignment) but a bossy lieutenant told me to get on the bus. If I had stayed behind then probably would never have met Kathie.

Getting involved in Scouts - was a good thing but it was awfully hard on the family. You have to be able to spend time with your family.

Meeting Kathie - Fell in love immediately, yes, it changed the way I viewed the world - it made everything "rosy".

My family Life's Lessons

My fulfilled dreams

Ardmore house - Built it on a 150 x 175 foot lot. I had a lot of help from my dad, Bill Trapp, Jim Watkinson (mechanic at shop). I did all the electrical work. It was going to be a showpiece until the government came and bought us out. They did us a favor but it ended the project.

It took nearly a year to clear the land from all the vines and briar bushes. We had an anniversary dinner there, a tire went flat - I changed it and then Kathie surprised me with a dinner on a piece of plywood between two saw horses with cushions attached to two nail kegs.

Lessons learned from my grandparents

I learned patience from my granddad Maseates on my dad's side. He never really let anything upset him.

Mary and I would be up on his farm until school started. Granddad had a big cross-cut saw and he let me help him and we were both laughing as he was puffing on his pipe. I tried to ride a duck one time and it died. They had a duck dinner. Grandma was a little unhappy but Granddad thought it was a funny thing. My granddad was a tough old geezer. He was chopping wood and put the ax between his big toe and next toe. He had to drive with it to Jamesburg which was 20 miles away.

The most important person in my life - Kathie - I learned what real love was and is. No matter what I did and every now and then mistreated or ridiculed her, Kathie never gave up on me.

There are so many things but I am grateful for parents and grandparents - what they taught me; they taught me how to live.

Life experiences that I am proud of

I am quite proud of affecting the lives of so many boys at scouting. They have come back as adults and thanked me.

One of the most difficult decisions I had to make was not to stay in the Navy. I was offered a "chief' position if I stayed in the Navy. I was not sure that I could fulfill the duties of a chief radio man. Additionally, my dad was looking forward to me coming to work for him.

Thoughts about Change and the Future

Important thoughts that I have include the importance of Change and how important it is that this country needs to change back to a Christian country rather than Sodom and Gomorrah. God has given us free will so if we want to destroy ourselves.

Life experiences that I wish I could have had include traveling to Alaska or Australia. They both would have been pretty expensive and Publisher's Clearinghouse didn't help me!

To my loved ones; I hope you will all stay in God's grace and never forget his love.