Taken from a letter written to a friend in 1951 by Bill Kelley but never mailed:
To bring you up to date as to what I have been doing since the days that we went our separate ways from New York, I submit the following: I of course went back to West Virginia, but it was not possible to get back into school until fall, and it was then April. I took a job as a surveyor in Beckley, West Virginia (The obvious reason for this move being the fact that Barbara D. lived in Beckley). I worked here until the middle of the summer when Barbara and I decided that we did not see the same things in each other that were there before the war. I then went to Charleston, West Virginia, the home of my parents, and just plain loafed for about three weeks, then I went back to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and re enrolled in the Department of Physics. For the next four years more or less I worked toward getting my degree. It was during this time that I met my wife in a little town near where I was living, and we were married while I was a Junior in school. At the end of that year, I got the opportunity to help with the construction of a television station in Huntington, West Virginia and we stayed out of school for that year and worked. The next year, I went back and finished my degree in Physics. After graduation, I got a job installing a small broadcasting station at which I worked for some four months. This was about the time that the war in Korea was getting under way full scale, and I became very worried at the possibility that I might be called back into the Army, a situation that I would go to no end to prevent. It was then that I heard of the fact that the government was beginning to reactivate an Arsenal here at Radford, Virginia, and I decided that there might be a job there for a physicist. I really walked into a gold mine here when I applied for a job because they had been looking for a physicist with electronic background to head up the Ballistics department for the Arsenal. I now am the Ballistic Engineer for Radford Arsenal, and have a crew of about 40 technical people working under me testing the various types of cannon, trench mortar and rocket powder that we make.
Return address was Route 1, Orchard View, Blacksburg, Virginia
Went by the name of Bill. Parents were William Denison Kelley,Sr. and Florence Evans Brooks Kelley. Married Georgia Lee Cook on August 12, 1948 in Radford, VA. They had 6 children; Mary Michael, Patricia Lee, William Denison,III, Ann Brooks, Bridget Sue and Patrick Sean. He died in 1961 at the age of 36 in an airplane accident. He loved flying airplanes. His sister Marcia tells stories of his ham radio adventures and other escapades he would get involved in. My brother Harry (William Denison Kelley, III) remembers him as really being fun to be with... He tells a story about father waking all of the children up at the cabin at Claytor Lake shouting "Last one in is a rotten egg". Of course he was already dressed in his swimsuit and halfway out the door!
More About William Denison Kelley, Jr.:
Army - WWII: Bet. March 1943 - April 1945, Private, U.S. Army Infantry - European Theater of War.
Bachelor/Science- Physics: 1950, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg,VA.
Ballistic Engineer: 1951, Radford Arsenal, Hercules Powder Co. , VA.
Beckley High School: Bet. 1940 - 1941, Beckley, West Virginia.
Bronze Star for valor: Danube River crossing.
Burial: 1961, Greenbriar Perpetual Care Cemetery, Lewisburg, West Virginia.
North Dakota A & M: 1943, Fargo, North Dakota - 6 months ASTP.
Private Pilot Certificate: November 25, 1958, Seagull Aviation, Brigham City Airport, Utah.
Sacred Heart High Sch.: Bet. 1938 - 1939, West Charleston, West Virginia.
St. Anthony's Grammer Sch: Bet. 1932 - 1937, West Charleston, West Virginia.
Woodrow Wilson High Sch: June 1942, Beckley, West Virginia - Graduated.
To bring you up to date as to what I have been doing since the days that we went our separate ways from New York, I submit the following: I of course went back to West Virginia, but it was not possible to get back into school until fall, and it was then April. I took a job as a surveyor in Beckley, West Virginia (The obvious reason for this move being the fact that Barbara D. lived in Beckley). I worked here until the middle of the summer when Barbara and I decided that we did not see the same things in each other that were there before the war. I then went to Charleston, West Virginia, the home of my parents, and just plain loafed for about three weeks, then I went back to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and re enrolled in the Department of Physics. For the next four years more or less I worked toward getting my degree. It was during this time that I met my wife in a little town near where I was living, and we were married while I was a Junior in school. At the end of that year, I got the opportunity to help with the construction of a television station in Huntington, West Virginia and we stayed out of school for that year and worked. The next year, I went back and finished my degree in Physics. After graduation, I got a job installing a small broadcasting station at which I worked for some four months. This was about the time that the war in Korea was getting under way full scale, and I became very worried at the possibility that I might be called back into the Army, a situation that I would go to no end to prevent. It was then that I heard of the fact that the government was beginning to reactivate an Arsenal here at Radford, Virginia, and I decided that there might be a job there for a physicist. I really walked into a gold mine here when I applied for a job because they had been looking for a physicist with electronic background to head up the Ballistics department for the Arsenal. I now am the Ballistic Engineer for Radford Arsenal, and have a crew of about 40 technical people working under me testing the various types of cannon, trench mortar and rocket powder that we make.
Return address was Route 1, Orchard View, Blacksburg, Virginia
Went by the name of Bill. Parents were William Denison Kelley,Sr. and Florence Evans Brooks Kelley. Married Georgia Lee Cook on August 12, 1948 in Radford, VA. They had 6 children; Mary Michael, Patricia Lee, William Denison,III, Ann Brooks, Bridget Sue and Patrick Sean. He died in 1961 at the age of 36 in an airplane accident. He loved flying airplanes. His sister Marcia tells stories of his ham radio adventures and other escapades he would get involved in. My brother Harry (William Denison Kelley, III) remembers him as really being fun to be with... He tells a story about father waking all of the children up at the cabin at Claytor Lake shouting "Last one in is a rotten egg". Of course he was already dressed in his swimsuit and halfway out the door!
More About William Denison Kelley, Jr.:
Army - WWII: Bet. March 1943 - April 1945, Private, U.S. Army Infantry - European Theater of War.
Bachelor/Science- Physics: 1950, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg,VA.
Ballistic Engineer: 1951, Radford Arsenal, Hercules Powder Co. , VA.
Beckley High School: Bet. 1940 - 1941, Beckley, West Virginia.
Bronze Star for valor: Danube River crossing.
Burial: 1961, Greenbriar Perpetual Care Cemetery, Lewisburg, West Virginia.
North Dakota A & M: 1943, Fargo, North Dakota - 6 months ASTP.
Private Pilot Certificate: November 25, 1958, Seagull Aviation, Brigham City Airport, Utah.
Sacred Heart High Sch.: Bet. 1938 - 1939, West Charleston, West Virginia.
St. Anthony's Grammer Sch: Bet. 1932 - 1937, West Charleston, West Virginia.
Woodrow Wilson High Sch: June 1942, Beckley, West Virginia - Graduated.
Taken from a letter written to a friend in 1951 by Bill Kelley but never mailed:
To bring you up to date as to what I have been doing since the days that we went our separate ways from New York, I submit the following: I of course went back to West Virginia, but it was not possible to get back into school until fall, and it was then April. I took a job as a surveyor in Beckley, West Virginia (The obvious reason for this move being the fact that Barbara D. lived in Beckley). I worked here until the middle of the summer when Barbara and I decided that we did not see the same things in each other that were there before the war. I then went to Charleston, West Virginia, the home of my parents, and just plain loafed for about three weeks, then I went back to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and re enrolled in the Department of Physics. For the next four years more or less I worked toward getting my degree. It was during this time that I met my wife in a little town near where I was living, and we were married while I was a Junior in school. At the end of that year, I got the opportunity to help with the construction of a television station in Huntington, West Virginia and we stayed out of school for that year and worked. The next year, I went back and finished my degree in Physics. After graduation, I got a job installing a small broadcasting station at which I worked for some four months. This was about the time that the war in Korea was getting under way full scale, and I became very worried at the possibility that I might be called back into the Army, a situation that I would go to no end to prevent. It was then that I heard of the fact that the government was beginning to reactivate an Arsenal here at Radford, Virginia, and I decided that there might be a job there for a physicist. I really walked into a gold mine here when I applied for a job because they had been looking for a physicist with electronic background to head up the Ballistics department for the Arsenal. I now am the Ballistic Engineer for Radford Arsenal, and have a crew of about 40 technical people working under me testing the various types of cannon, trench mortar and rocket powder that we make.
Return address was Route 1, Orchard View, Blacksburg, Virginia
Went by the name of Bill. Parents were William Denison Kelley,Sr. and Florence Evans Brooks Kelley. Married Georgia Lee Cook on August 12, 1948 in Radford, VA. They had 6 children; Mary Michael, Patricia Lee, William Denison,III, Ann Brooks, Bridget Sue and Patrick Sean. He died in 1961 at the age of 36 in an airplane accident. He loved flying airplanes. His sister Marcia tells stories of his ham radio adventures and other escapades he would get involved in. My brother Harry (William Denison Kelley, III) remembers him as really being fun to be with... He tells a story about father waking all of the children up at the cabin at Claytor Lake shouting "Last one in is a rotten egg". Of course he was already dressed in his swimsuit and halfway out the door!
More About William Denison Kelley, Jr.:
Army - WWII: Bet. March 1943 - April 1945, Private, U.S. Army Infantry - European Theater of War.
Bachelor/Science- Physics: 1950, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg,VA.
Ballistic Engineer: 1951, Radford Arsenal, Hercules Powder Co. , VA.
Beckley High School: Bet. 1940 - 1941, Beckley, West Virginia.
Bronze Star for valor: Danube River crossing.
Burial: 1961, Greenbriar Perpetual Care Cemetery, Lewisburg, West Virginia.
North Dakota A & M: 1943, Fargo, North Dakota - 6 months ASTP.
Private Pilot Certificate: November 25, 1958, Seagull Aviation, Brigham City Airport, Utah.
Sacred Heart High Sch.: Bet. 1938 - 1939, West Charleston, West Virginia.
St. Anthony's Grammer Sch: Bet. 1932 - 1937, West Charleston, West Virginia.
Woodrow Wilson High Sch: June 1942, Beckley, West Virginia - Graduated.
To bring you up to date as to what I have been doing since the days that we went our separate ways from New York, I submit the following: I of course went back to West Virginia, but it was not possible to get back into school until fall, and it was then April. I took a job as a surveyor in Beckley, West Virginia (The obvious reason for this move being the fact that Barbara D. lived in Beckley). I worked here until the middle of the summer when Barbara and I decided that we did not see the same things in each other that were there before the war. I then went to Charleston, West Virginia, the home of my parents, and just plain loafed for about three weeks, then I went back to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and re enrolled in the Department of Physics. For the next four years more or less I worked toward getting my degree. It was during this time that I met my wife in a little town near where I was living, and we were married while I was a Junior in school. At the end of that year, I got the opportunity to help with the construction of a television station in Huntington, West Virginia and we stayed out of school for that year and worked. The next year, I went back and finished my degree in Physics. After graduation, I got a job installing a small broadcasting station at which I worked for some four months. This was about the time that the war in Korea was getting under way full scale, and I became very worried at the possibility that I might be called back into the Army, a situation that I would go to no end to prevent. It was then that I heard of the fact that the government was beginning to reactivate an Arsenal here at Radford, Virginia, and I decided that there might be a job there for a physicist. I really walked into a gold mine here when I applied for a job because they had been looking for a physicist with electronic background to head up the Ballistics department for the Arsenal. I now am the Ballistic Engineer for Radford Arsenal, and have a crew of about 40 technical people working under me testing the various types of cannon, trench mortar and rocket powder that we make.
Return address was Route 1, Orchard View, Blacksburg, Virginia
Went by the name of Bill. Parents were William Denison Kelley,Sr. and Florence Evans Brooks Kelley. Married Georgia Lee Cook on August 12, 1948 in Radford, VA. They had 6 children; Mary Michael, Patricia Lee, William Denison,III, Ann Brooks, Bridget Sue and Patrick Sean. He died in 1961 at the age of 36 in an airplane accident. He loved flying airplanes. His sister Marcia tells stories of his ham radio adventures and other escapades he would get involved in. My brother Harry (William Denison Kelley, III) remembers him as really being fun to be with... He tells a story about father waking all of the children up at the cabin at Claytor Lake shouting "Last one in is a rotten egg". Of course he was already dressed in his swimsuit and halfway out the door!
More About William Denison Kelley, Jr.:
Army - WWII: Bet. March 1943 - April 1945, Private, U.S. Army Infantry - European Theater of War.
Bachelor/Science- Physics: 1950, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg,VA.
Ballistic Engineer: 1951, Radford Arsenal, Hercules Powder Co. , VA.
Beckley High School: Bet. 1940 - 1941, Beckley, West Virginia.
Bronze Star for valor: Danube River crossing.
Burial: 1961, Greenbriar Perpetual Care Cemetery, Lewisburg, West Virginia.
North Dakota A & M: 1943, Fargo, North Dakota - 6 months ASTP.
Private Pilot Certificate: November 25, 1958, Seagull Aviation, Brigham City Airport, Utah.
Sacred Heart High Sch.: Bet. 1938 - 1939, West Charleston, West Virginia.
St. Anthony's Grammer Sch: Bet. 1932 - 1937, West Charleston, West Virginia.
Woodrow Wilson High Sch: June 1942, Beckley, West Virginia - Graduated.
Inscription
WILLIAM D KELLEY JR
WEST VIRGINIA
TEC HQ CO 232 INF 42 DIV
WORLD WAR II BSM & OLC
JULY 1 1924 FEB 2 1961
