William F. Probert
William F. Probert, long-time resident of the Santa Ynez Valley, completed his life’s journey at Atterdag Care Center on March 4 due to age related causes. He was born in Oelwein, Iowa on December 2, 1929, the first of two sons born to William V. and Vernetta Taubman Probert.
William spent the early years of his life on a large, diversified farm, settled by his great-grandparents on public lands opened in northeastern Iowa. The first eight grades of his formal education began there in a rural, one room schoolhouse and continued through a mechanical engineering degree from the General Motors Institute in 1957.
In August 1955 he and Miss Mary Lou Howell of Flint, Michigan were married. Three children were born into the family: Kimberlee Ann, Gail Lynne, and William Scott.
During his 38-year career with GM, he worked in military and government programs almost exclusively, both in-plant and at various field locations. During the early years of the missile programs, Bill worked as an inertial guidance engineer on the Titan II ICBM, hard site launched at VAFB, and earlier, on the Mace cruise missile flight tests out of Holloman AFB, in New Mexico. Both systems were deployed as deterrents during the Cold War. In the early 1970s, Bill was made Project Engineer responsibility for a terrestrial equivalent of the Lunar Roving Vehicle. Its purpose was to provide an identical 1G platform for the development of skills and procedures to be followed by the astronauts once on the lunar surface. He was to view the launch of Apollo 16, as a guest of NASA along with Mary.
He is survived by the three children above and by grandson, Nicholas Thomas, a family of whom he was particularly proud. He was preceded in death by Mary Lou, his wife of 47 years and by his parents.
Bill would like to be remembered as a pleasant man, bountifully blessed, with and interest in agriculture, aerospace, automobiles, and adventure. He has entered his favorite, vintage, two-cylinder, John Deere tractor in a local parade for the final review.
A celebration of Bill’s life will be held on May 17, from 2-4pm, at Montanero Farms in Los Olivos.
