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<em>William J. D’Espinosa</em> was born in Boston, Massachusetts on 21 March 1900, the third son of Rosa and Giovanni D’Espinosa. He attended public schools in Norwood, Massachusetts. At the age of eighteen he entered Northeastern University’s school of chemical engineering in Boston as a cooperative student, earning tuition by working at the General Electric research laboratories in West Lynn. During the last months of World War I he served as a private in the Student Army Training Corps at Northeastern. A high school classmate persuaded Bill to take the entrance exam to West Point. He earned an appointment and entered the Academy in 1919 as a member of the class of 1923.</p>
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After graduation from West Point, Bill joined the Field Artillery at Fort Ethan Allen. Three years later, in 1926, he married Katherine Ellis, a high school classmate from Norwood, Massachusetts. That same year he began his studies in ordnance engineering at MIT, followed by work in production engineering at Westinghouse in Pittsburgh and the auto plants in Detroit. From 1930 to 1937 he was shop officer at Frankford Arsenal, Philadelphia, and depot and post supply officer at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. During these years his two daughters, Ann and Jane, were born.</p>
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As World War II approached, Bill was back in school at the Army Industrial College in Washington, DC. While attending the Industrial College he served in the Office of the Chief of Ordnance where he was in charge of procurement planning, as well as specifications and instruction manuals for artillery, instruments, and automotive materiel. In 1941 and 1942 he commanded the Kingsbury Ordnance Plant in LaPorte, Indiana, and the Lone Star Ordnance Plant in Texarkana, Texas during their construction and early production phases.</p>
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Bill spent a brief period training ordnance troops and developing ordnance materiel for airborne troops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina before departing for England in 1943. By then a colonel, he served as acting Deputy Ordnance Officer, European Theater during the planning and buildup for the Normandy invasion. He took part in the D-Day invasion at Omaha Beach and was Ordnance Officer V Corps throughout the campaigns in Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, Germany and Czechoslovakia. He was awarded the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Legion of Merit, the French and Belgian Croix de Guerre, the Czech Military Cross, as well as other medals.</p>
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After the war Bill was stationed at Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois. In 1947 he went to Turkey as Ordnance Industrial Advisor on a mission for aid under the Marshall Plan. Then it was back to Washington, where he was in charge of engineering and ordnance standards. During 1948 he served in the Office of the Inspector General. His final assignment was as Ordnance Officer, Third Army, at Fort McPherson, Georgia, from which post he retired with the rank of colonel in July 1953.</p>
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From his Army retirement in 1953 until 1960, Bill worked for three companies under defense contracts: Aerial Products, Inc., Elkton, Maryland; Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company, Cleveland, Ohio; and the Missile Division of the Chrysler Corporation, Detroit, Michigan.</p>
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At the age of 60 Bill retired for good. He and his wife, Katherine, settled in McLean, Virginia near friends and family. They spent summers at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 1974, Bill’s beloved wife died. Bill died in Washington on 27 November 1988 at the age of 88. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.</p>
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Surviving Bill are his two daughters, Jane D’Espinosa, who lived with him and cared for him, and Ann Maurer who lives in Connecticut. He is also survived by five grandchildren and three great grandchildren.</p>
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