William “Bill” R. Givin died Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022, in Lewes at the age of 89, healthy but for the insidious deterioration caused by Parkinson’s disease. Thanks to Delaware Hospice, Bill was able to pass peacefully at home listening to music with his family.

Bill was born on Feb. 11, 1933, in Manhattan, N.Y., the first child of Rodney B. Givin and Katharine Thompson Givin. He attended high school at Suffield Academy in Connecticut. He was valedictorian of the class of 1950. After graduation, Bill moved with his family to Wilmington, where his sister Susan introduced him to Marie Bayne. Bill and Marie married in 1952 and started their family.

In 1953, Bill began his career in the paper industry as an apprentice draftsman with The Pusey and Jones Company of Wilmington. Originally ship builders, the company had converted to the manufacture of paper making machinery after WW2. In 1960, he was recruited by Huyck Corporation to be one of the 6-10 engineers working in their new product development office in Milford, Conn. Huyck Corporation was in the business of manufacturing paper making felts (forming fabric). Bill started as a project engineer and later moved into management. He completed an associate degree at New Haven College in 1966.

The family, begun in Delaware, moved first to Milford Conn., then Greeneville, Tenn., and finally to Wake Forest, N.C., continuing Bill’s long association with the Huyck Corporation. His career included projects in Europe and Japan. He retired from Huyck (now just one piece of the giant conglomerate BTR) in 1992. After retirement, he worked as a consultant for Albany International, a paper equipment company based in Albany, N.Y. Bill worked with the Appleton, Wisconsin group.

Bill and Marie built a home on Cape Cod in Harwich, Mass., in 1988. The maternal side of Bill’s family had deep roots in this area, and he loved the beach and the bike trails. They finally returned to Delaware in 2018 to be near their daughter Debra in Lewes.

Bill worked in the paper industry for 45 years. When he began, the tools of his trade included the slide rule, measuring devices and model making. By the end of his career, he had mastered the use of computer programing in visual basic to design and develop his employer’s products. Bill embraced the old-fashioned values of honesty, loyalty, hard work and family responsibility. Precision was important to him. In mechanical engineering, there really are right and wrong answers.

Bill was a lifelong athlete, enjoying football, baseball, and softball in his youth, and moving on to handball and racquetball, as well as golf as he matured. Striving for excellence in every pursuit, he received accolades and trophies too numerous to list. Of particular pride were the golf tournaments he participated in with his son Daniel.

He was predeceased by his daughter Rachel. Bill is survived by his wife, Marie; his son, Daniel; his daughters, Debra and Naomi; his brother, Russel; his sister, Susan Detterman; and his 33 nieces and nephews.

Final care for Bill has been entrusted to Parsell Funeral Homes and Crematorium, Atkins-Lodge Chapel, Lewes.

Bill’s cremains will join those of his mother and grandmother in the waters off Red River Beach in Harwich, Mass.

 Visit Bill's Life Memorial webpage and sign his virtual guestbook at parsellfuneralhomes.com.

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.