Charles "Bill" Bennett

Charles William Bennett, “Bill” to his friends, passed away on October 5, 2018 after a long battle with heart disease, kidney failure and diabetes.  He was the oldest, at 91, of his immediate relatives.

Bill was born in St. Louis, MO to his WW1 veteran father and a seamstress mother.  Growing up in the great depression he vowed to never to be poor.  He was an eagle scout and graduated from high school at the age of 16 and got 3 years of college credit by the time he volunteered for the Army at 18 years old.  This was at the end of WW II and he got his mechanical engineering degree.  Inspired by his father’s tour of post war Europe Bill got a job with the Army motion picture service in Germany.

Bill married Margie in 1952 and he roamed Europe building theaters at U.S. Army bases.  When they had their son, William Rickey, they returned in 1956 to the U.S. and moved to Santa Barbara, CA.  Bill got in the Aerospace boom and worked on famous projects like the X-15 rocket plane and spy satellites.  His program was portrayed in the movie, The Falcon and the Snowman with Sean Penn.  The base, Pine Gap, in Australia is now a subject of a Australian  t.v. program, an X Files like drama.

Bill lived in Brentwood, CA while working.  He retired in Rancho Bernardo, CA.   His wife, Margie, died in 2012 and he longed to be with her again.  This he has now accomplished.  He is survived by his only son William.

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