SOUTH PARIS – William H. “Bill” McFarlane, 83, of West Paris, died Jan. 26, at Maine Veterans Home of South Paris, after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Born July 14, 1921, in Oak Park, Ill., the son of Alan and Magdalena (Zinsmaster) McFarlane, he grew up in the vicinity of Scottsville, Va., and graduated from Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Va., in 1938. Until 1942, he worked for Mutual of Omaha Insurance in Pittsburgh, where he met Shirley Perham of West Paris. They were married in November of 1942.

In February of 1942, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. He was a glider pilot, flight instructor, and personnel officer while stationed at Bergstrom Field, Austin, Texas, with the Troop Carrier Command, Glider Squadron. In 1946, he enrolled in the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. His four children were born while he pursued studies in philosophy and religion. He was the director of student aid at the university from 1950 to 1953, and an assistant professor of humanities from 1953 to 1957. He received a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1957. His leadership and contributions were recognized with the Raven Award and the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, the Raven Society, and the Thirteen Society.

On completing his education, he embarked upon a distinguished career in higher education. He was the director of the Virginia State Council of Higher Education from 1958 to 1964, following which he was the director of the Virginia Associated Research Center (a university consortium which operated NASA’s Space Radiation Effects Laboratory at Langley Field, Va.) from 1964 to 1967. In 1964, he founded a consulting firm that, from 1964 to 1979, conducted studies for new or developing colleges and universities in the United States and elsewhere, including Puerto Rico, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

In 1968, he accepted the position of Humanities Department chairman at George Mason College in Fairfax, Va. While there, he founded and chaired the Department of Philosophy and Religion. He chaired the Arts and Sciences faculty and its Committee on Academic Policies and Planning. He administered and taught with distinction. According to longtime friend and colleague, Bob Hawks, he was a faculty leader and a peacemaker who sought to bring people of disparate views together, to find a common ground from which to create consensus on administrative and educational issues at the college. “I respected him immensely,” says Dr. Hawks. “He had a broad and knowledgeable experience base from which to draw when advising others. He offered honest and well-reasoned advice to all who sought his counsel.”

His desire was to be known as a teacher, a scholar, and writer in the fields of philosophy, higher education, and religion. He was a devoted father and husband. Passionate about the importance of family, he was the rock on which his family leaned, as well as the beacon that illuminated their intellectual and spiritual development. He also loved the outdoors, particularly the woods and fields of Maine. He and Shirley built a vacation home in West Paris in 1978, to which they retired in 1986. As a resident of West Paris, he served on the Board of Selectmen and on the planning council. He was an active member of Christ Episcopal Church of Norway, where he was a chalice bearer and lector, an occasional contributor to the church publication, and a teacher. He designed and taught a course on the Book of Revelation for the church.

He is survived by Shirley, for 62 years his devoted wife and source of strength; his brother, Alan of Illinois; son, Alan of Manassas, Va.; daughters, Anne Toepker of Dillon, Colo., Norah (Everett) Lackey of Warrenton, Va., and Laurie (Alex) DiSanto of Melbourne, Fla.; grandchildren, Chris Toepker of Hong Kong, Lisa Siegrist of Burlington, Ky., Danny McFarlane of Beaufort, S.C., Anna Bailey and Megan Bailey of Arlington, Va., Amy Lackey of Charlottesville, Va., and Dustin Lackey of Radford, Va.; eight great-grandchildren; and many cousins, nieces, nephews, and close friends, all of whom will dearly miss this dignified, gentle man of character.

He was predeceased by his sisters, Maryann McFarlane and Kathleen Kidder.

Copy the Story Link