William "Bill" Lee Brown

William (\u0027Bill\u0027) Lee Brown, 78, passed away quietly at his home in Cottonwood on July 15, after a long illness. Born on July 7, 1928, in Des Moines, Iowa. Bill served in the Navy during the Korean War, after which he attended Iowa State University, where he graduated with degrees in physics and journalism. His engineering expertise took him to Texas where he worked for General Dynamics, and then Fischbach and Moore as a computer systems engineer. He had top secret clearance while working for TRW on the war games room at the Strategic Air Command in Omaha Nebraska. He was highly thought of by his supervisors and his peers, and retired in 1989 to Sandpoint, Idaho, where he indulged his love of astronomy among other assorted hobbies. In 1995 he and his wife, Merlyn built a home in Oak Creek Valley where Bill had a magnificently-equipped observatory, with a computerized telescope capability. Besides astronomy, Bill was knowledgeable on a wide range of subjects, including the Lewis and Clark expeditions and the Mormon trek westward. He is survived by his wife, Merlyn; daughters, Judy Lehmberg and Susan Smith; son, Chris Brown; step-son, Steven Joffe; step-daughters, Lynn Joffe and Layne Cain; and grandchildren Adam Kisler and Devon Rinkel. There are no services planned. An online guestbook is available at www.westcottfuneralhome.com