Bill's association with BRCC began in the early '80s (it was still Concord Bible Fellowship back then) when he lived in Florida and met Nan Torrence at a conference in Kansas City. Nan was working at Babcock & Wilcox at the time, and when she and Woody were in Florida not long after that, she took Bill up on his offer of a tour of Pratt & Whitney where he had worked most of his career. Thus began a long-term friendship that included many visits back and forth between Florida and Virginia. Woody even helped Bill choose some property to buy at Smith Mountain Lake--back in the days when such property was actually affordable! 

Bill was born in New York City but, other than a 4-year stint in the Air Force, he lived in Florida from the time he was 7 years old until 1994 when he retired from Pratt & Whitney and moved to Richmond, VA. It would still be five more years before he finally built a house on that property at SML and moved to this area. After all those years of visiting BRCC off and on, it was like coming home. 

It wasn't long before Bill took on the volunteer role of facility manager. At that time, Blue Ridge was still meeting at Linkhorne Middle School. He has been faithful in that role, which became a part-time staff position in 2007, and is now on his third facility. Bill's attention to detail is invaluable as he oversees keeping the inner workings of this building in top-notch condition--thanks to the help of a lot of top-notch volunteers.

bearle@blue-ridge.org
434.525.7481 ext 122