William T. "Bill" Taylor

William T. "Bill" Taylor
January 23, 1943 - July 16, 1994

To tell the story of Bill Taylor, it is necessary to briefly review the history of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, PATCO. Formed in response to labor turmoil in the nation's air traffic control system in 1968, PATCO was the union representing U.S. air traffic controllers until it was decertified following the nationwide strike in August 1981. At the order of President Reagan, all participants in the strike were fired and barred from being rehired to any federal position, for life.

At the time of the strike, Bill Taylor was facility representative for the Tucson Radar Approach Control and PATCO Western Regional representative. On August 5, Taylor, PATCO vice president Gary Eads, and thirty-seven others across the country were arrested on federal charges for the felony of striking against the federal government. Taylor was the first of this group to be convicted. He was sentenced to one year of probation, including the loss of his right to vote during that time.

PATCO was a union that refused to die. Eads, Taylor, and several other strikers moved to Washington, DC and formed the U.S. Air Traffic Controllers Organization (USATCO), which continued organizing and lobbying for an end to the government's ban on rehiring through November 1984, when it was disbanded for lack of funds. At that time, Bill Taylor initiated PATCO Lives, an organization "dedicated to the good and welfare of PATCO air traffic controllers and their families." PATCO Lives and its newsletter The Lifeline functioned as a network and resource for fired controllers.

Twelve years after the PATCO strike, in August 1993, President Clinton lifted the lifetime ban on rehiring PATCO controllers instituted by the Reagan administration. This largely symbolic gesture was bitterly opposed by the FAA and resulted in the rehiring of less than 1,000 of the 11,345 fired strikers by 2001.

After Taylor's death in 1994, Controllers United, led by Bob Harris, continued to work toward meaningful rehiring and served as a contact point for PATCO veterans and their families. This effort was terminated in 1998 and was, to the knowledge of this writer, the last nationwide network for fired controllers.

Bill Taylor was one of six children born to his parents William and Elizabeth Taylor in Cleveland, Ohio. He joined the Air Force, where he was trained as a controller and became a civilian air traffic controller. Upon his discharge in 1966, he was employed at the FAA Air Traffic Control Center in Great Falls, MT. In 1966 he married Donna Anderson Taylor of Great Falls, MT; their family included two children, Jeff and Laura. In the last few years of his life, he worked in drug and alcohol counseling in the Washington, DC, area.

Bill Taylor touched the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of PATCO controllers and family members. He is fondly remembered and sorely missed.