William J. Decker

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of William James (Bill) Decker on January 22, 2025, at the age of 77, in Elizabethtown, PA. Bill was born on August 27, 1947, in Ann Arbor, MI, to James and Mary (McCormick) Decker.

Bill was admired immensely for his many outstanding achievements and characteristics. Underlying all of them was his remarkable and deep intellect, enthusiasm for learning and teaching, and his profound dedication to bringing joy to others.

Very early in life, at the age of 6 months, Bill’s family moved to State College, PA, where his father was a professor at Penn State University Mechanical Engineering Department. As a youth in the late 1950s, Bill often accompanied his dad, to observe satellites orbiting the earth. This was during the formative years of terrestrial satellite observation and it piqued Bill’s curiosity about the night skies, astronomy, physics and data analysis, areas which were to become his forte.

Bill graduated high school in the top 10% of his class from State College High School in 1965. Growing up in State College, it was only natural for Bill to look to Penn State for his higher education. Bill followed the stars and graduated in 1969 from Penn State University with a B.S. in Astronomy and a B.S. in Physics.

Bill continued with graduate studies at Penn State, with an emphasis on Radio Astronomy. For the next 6 years, Bill’s graduate group focused their studies on solar radio astronomy, and Bill’s primary responsibility was for data collection and reporting.

While monitoring solar radio telescopes from morning to night, there are large gaps between normal solar activity and extraordinary events. To keep busy, Bill read a lot of Scientific American Magazine, and among those issues found an article on fractals and fractal art, an interest and passion that threaded throughout his life.

He also found time to become involved, with some of his fellow grad students, in caving and cave conservation. In 1968, he and a group of fellow cavers formed a group which bought property near Burnsville, VA, to conserve a cave system in that area, and further the science of hydrology and cave conservation. The organization still exists today as the Butler Cave Conservation Society.

In 1976, Bill was employed by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) as a Programmer in the Washington D.C. area, where he worked for the next 35 years. At this time he met Jeannette Traub, the woman who would become his wife and love of his life. Jeannette brought two children, Jeannine and Jason, ages 14 and 11 respectively, to the marriage. For the next 10 years, the couple raised their blended family.

About to become empty-nesters, Bill and Jeannette had just found the perfect place to resettle near Bowie, MD.  Tragically, Jeannette was then stricken with cancer, dying in 1989. Bill lived in Bowie for the next 25 years and remained close to their children.

Bill’s professional life at CSC had several components. He started out by maintaining software for Goddard Spaceflight Center, which dealt with near-earth spaceflight. A major task to follow was a cooperative effort between CSC, University of Maryland and Goddard, to study how large programming teams created software. From these studies, Bill developed a method to evaluate the efficiency of software teams and helped train programmers on these efficiencies, then audited them and provided certification for engineers meeting the required criteria. Bill’s title at retirement was nearly as succinct: Process Architect.

In retirement, after being the scientist, engineer, and mathematician, Bill put together a To Do list for retirement goals: Resume Fractal Arts; Learn about literature, politics and history.  After settling at the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown, PA, in December 2013, Bill fervently pursued these goals. Bill saw an advertisement for The Great Courses, DVDs about History, Literature, Philosophy and Politics, with lectures. This sparked the idea to form a discussion group to view and discuss the topics. Participant interaction brought the topics to life and Bill led this group during most of his retirement tenure. As part of his legacy, Bill established the Lifelong Discovery Fund at Masonic Village to encourage curiosity and continuing learning for residents. As for his fractal art, Bill flourished as an artist. If you haven’t seen Bill’s work at the Masonic Village Art Gallery, a quick Google search of fractal art, Bill Decker will show that Bill was an active artist since the late 1990s.

Bill is survived by two brothers, John (Cora) Decker, Kenneth (Carol) Decker; daughter Jeannine (Joe) Wang; son Jason Fisher; grandchildren Jeannette (William) Hearon, Janelle (Rujay) Asfaw, Lauren Fisher, Robert Fisher, and Josephine Wang; great-grandchildren Wilson and Avery Asfaw; and nieces and nephews Elizabeth (Chad) Dechow, James (Jane) Decker, Catherine (Gregory) DiCristofaro, William (Danielle) Decker.

A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, February 15, 2025, at Sell Chapel of Masonic Village, 1 Masonic Drive, Elizabethtown, PA 17022, with visitation from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. and services beginning at 1:00 p.m. Burial will be at Centre County Memorial Park in State College, PA, at the convenience of the family.

Memorial donations can be made to Masonic Charities for the Lifelong Discovery Fund in memory of William J. Decker. Mailing address: Masonic Charities of Pennsylvania, Office of Mission Advancement and Development, 1 Masonic Drive, Elizabethtown, PA 17022, or visit https://masonicvillages.org/donate-now/ .