WILLIAM EMANUEL KATZ

1924 - 2018

KATZ, William Emanuel Chemical Engineer, Jazz Pianist, WWII Vet Died peacefully at home in Weston, Massachusetts, on November 10th 2018, at the age of 94. Bill was a leading desalination expert, WWII veteran, accomplished jazz pianist, and consummate family man. He was born in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, to Edward David Katz and Aimee Helen Rosenfelder Katz. His family ran the Katz Bros. Department Store and the Katz pyjama factory. He studied classical piano, and by his teen years, was leading his own dance band, The Swing Seven, and performing in local clubs and grange halls, as well as at high school dances.

Bill left MIT to serve in the US Army during World War II from 1943 to 1946. After basic training with the Army in Texas, he received advanced training in electrical engineering and radio communications in Wyoming, Idaho and California. After a stint working from an underground tunnel on Hawaii, Bill was stationed on the Pacific island of Tinian in the Marianas, where he served as Team Leader of the VHF Radio Team of the 389th Signal Corps (Aviation). He received a Bronze Star Victory Medal for his "superior record" in keeping communications open during the nightly B-29 raids from Tinian, including presumed communications with the Enola Gay. His experiences in the war were recorded in the book Weston Veterans: World War II by Adolph and Margaret Caso.

After the war, Bill returned to MIT to obtain his bachelors (1948) and masters (1949) degrees in chemical engineering. While there, he also had a jazz piano program on the MIT radio station, and wrote, arranged, and led the orchestra for the music for several original "Tech Show" musicals. Some of this music was later played by the Boston Pops, led by Arthur Fiedler, at an MIT night at the Pops.

After MIT, Bill joined a start-up company, Ionics Inc., pioneering new water purification and desalination techniques, and ultimately spent over 50 years with the company, becoming Executive Vice President and a Director of the company. He was named Water Quality Person of the Year in 1992 by the American Desalting Association and received a Life Achievement Award from the International Desalination Association in 1999. He held several patents in the field, and traveled the world to build water desalting plants in places including the Canary Islands, Corfu, Siesta Key, and Santa Barbara. After retiring, he served on the Wastewater Advisory Committee of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.

In 1960, Bill married social worker and artist Martha Elizabeth Legg, the love of his life. Bill and Martha spent their early years together in a walk-up apartment on Beacon Hill before moving to Weston, and summered in a former grist mill and fish market on the harbor in Manchester-by-the-Sea. Bill was known for entertaining a crowd on his piano, including at the annual neighborhood holiday party. He performed in the Weston Library community concert series, until the age of 90. After his retirement, Bill and Martha traveled each year across the country and back by train, and made several trans-Atlantic roundtrips by ship.

Bill was preceded in death by his beloved wife Martha in 2016, and beloved grandson Charles Laserson in 2017. He leaves behind four children (Susan, Martha, David and James Katz), four sons-and-daughters-in-law (Paul Miller, Dennis McCann, Mimi Martin, and Chelsea Whittaker), and seven grandchildren (Aimee and Ben Miller, Annabelle Laserson, and William, Josephine, and Mariella Katz). In lieu of flowers, donations can be made In Memory of Bill Katz to the Weston METCO Scholarship Fund. There was a family burial in Honesdale.