William Everett Billingsley, a Chapel Hill resident since 1967, was originally from Hamlet, N.C. (Richmond County). Everett passed away on Monday, December 21, 2009 after a long battle with congestive heart failure.
Born on July 9, 1930, he was 79 years old, and the son of the late James Marcus and Lula Gibson Billingsley. He graduated with honors from North Carolina State University in mechanical engineering in 1957 and earned a master’s degree in commerce from the University of Richmond in 1966. He also pursued doctoral studies in business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
After graduating from North Carolina State University, he began work with the Seaboard Airline Railroad in Norfolk and Richmond.
In 1967, he returned to North Carolina and worked with the Physical Plant Division at UNC Chapel Hill and later with the electrics section of the Utilities Division. At that time, both the town and the university were served by this body. When the state legislature required the university to dispense with this private telephone, electric, water and sewer utilities, the Chapel Hill Town Council appointed Everett as executive director of the water and sewer system.
Officially, this became the Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA). He served OWASA for 21 years, which included the severe water shortage of the 1970s; out of this, he led the drive for the property purchase and building of the Cane Creek Reservoir, which now serves as the primary water source for Chapel Hill and Carrboro. He retired from OWASA in 1996. He was a member of the Sertoma Club of the Triangle, Cape Fear River Assembly, American Waterworks Association, University United Methodist Church, and he served as president of the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Chamber of Commerce.
Everett was a natural leader from a young age, becoming a successful debater and president of his Hamlet High School Senior class. He led many projects and programs during his undergraduate years at NC State and was a student instructor during his senior year. He also was a member of the Theta Tau Honors fraternity.
Everett was drafted into the Army in 1950 during the Korean Conflict and served as a medic in a MASH operation on the frontlines.
Everett was very interested in family genealogy for both his mother and father, and traced the Billingsley history back to the early 1600s in England.
He is preceded in death by a son and daughter, William Lawrence Billingsley and Melinda Billingsley Cashwell; his parents; his brother Marcus Billingsley Jr.; and two sisters, Carol Griffin and Lois Raines. He is survived by his son, Andrew Everett Billingsley Sr.; his daughter-in-law, Claire Sturkie Billingsley; his grandsons, Andrew Everett Billingsley Jr., Alexander Stewart Daly and Stephen Cashwell; and his sister and brother Page and Roy Billingsley.
A funeral service was held December 30 at University United Methodist Church.