William D. Earle (better known as Bill), 6/22/1934 - 11/13/2017, loved aviation. During his high school years in West Palm Beach, Florida, he achieved an A&E (aircraft and engine maintenance) License from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and—thanks to help from a mentor neighbor—he worked at a local airport doing jobs such as taking care of the maintenance on a local bank’s airplane.

When Bill finished high school, he entered the US Air Force. He wasn’t accepted for flight school because his right arm had been broken three times when he was a child and he couldn’t rotate it enough to pass the medical test. But he loved his jobs in the Air Force as aircraft instructor, flight engineer on a C-54 flown by General Barcus, and doing maintenance on F-100s.

After 4 years in the Air Force, Bill was honorably discharged and soon went to work for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft at their Florida Research and Development Center, while also taking classes to obtain his mechanical engineering degree from the University of Florida. His career at P&W included over 14 years working in Experimental Test Engineering/Management, and another 23 years in Cost Reduction Management. During his time in Experimental Test, Bill was part of the team that ran the first successful test of the J-58 engine which would later power the SR-71 Blackbird, as well as being involved with several other engines that P&W developed during those years. The test area was pretty remote, so working there also provided stories of alligators, panthers, and snakes, a raccoon trying to pick Bill’s pocket in the middle of the night, and a bulldozer “lost” in quicksand.

After retiring from P&W in 1994, Bill and his family moved to Virginia where he spent several more years working as a Realtor in Richmond and then as facility manager for Blue Ridge Community Church in Forest. His final “retirement” from working was at the end of 2015 at the age of 81. Although his last 20+ years of employment were not in the aviation field, he never lost his love for it; and he never stopped looking for the Eagle and the "Pratt & Whitney Dependable Engines" logo on any aircraft he boarded.