May 19, 1939 – July 7, 2022 Bill Hatch, of Arnold, MD, died on July 7, 2022. He was 83 years old. He was a man committed to his family, and honoring and serving his country. He passed away at his home surrounded by family, friends, and the Pastor from his church. Bill was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and grew up in Alaska, where he also graduated from Anchorage High School. He attended Washington State University where he majored in Electrical Engineering and joined Sigma Chi Fraternity. After college, he joined the Army and served in the United States for two years and was then transferred to Karlsruhe, Germany, where he served for another two years. He returned to the states and was honorably discharged. He went back to college and received his master's degree from George Washington University, in Electrical Engineering. Bill's career included many years working for ECAC, in Annapolis, MD, and then transitioning and retiring from the Department of Commerce, in Washington, D.C. He loved water skiing, boating, snow skiing and spending time with family and friends. He loved hunting, family vacations and music. He loved to joke around with his friends and share in any opportunity to pull pranks on each other, including his wife, Lynne. Bill is survived by his wife, Lynne, his son, Jeff, his daughter Nancy, and son-in-law Dale. He is also survived by his two grandsons, Tanner and Zac, their mother, Cathy, and by his brothers Jim and Max Hatch, and their wives respectively, Jean and Debbie. Bill will be missed as a strong, caring father and husband and teacher of all things needed to make it through life. The service for Bill Hatch will be on Saturday, July 23, 2022, at Gloria Dei! Lutheran Church, 461 College Parkway, Arnold, MD 21012. Visitation will be at 11:00 AM, the service will be held at 12:00 PM, followed by a reception at 1:00 PM, also at Gloria Dei! Lutheran Church.

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Published by The Capital Gazette on Jul. 17, 2022.

Memories and Condolences
for William Hatch

10 Entries

Brent Jacobs

July 11, 2023

Bill Hatch Personal History
July 23, 2022

Hi everyone. My name is Brent Jacobs, and I probably knew Bill a little longer than most of you here. Bill and I were High school classmates in Anchorage, Alaska in the high school class of 1957. That was when Alaska was still a territory before statehood...a long time ago! I thought I would tell a few stories about Bill and me from those years that illustrate a few of Bill´s attributes. He was always a gentleman, had a real sense of humor and was a good friend of mine for over 65 years. He was a guy who would take on almost any project and keep going at it until he either finished it or became too exhausted to continue. In a word, he was tenacious.

One of my first experiences with Bill occurred in our 2nd year Latin class during our sophomore HS year. Our Latin teacher said that each of us had to complete a Latin project during the last semester. I think she had a paper on a subject written in Latin in mind, but she didn´t say that, she said "project". Well, Bill noted a picture in our Latin textbook that was an artist´s concept of a Roman fortification, something the Roman army was famous for building whenever they paused a march through enemy territory. He proposed that we build a model of a Roman fort for our project. I agreed that it would be more fun than a paper in Latin so that is what we did. We took a wooden frame and, using wire, paper Mache´, sticks, glue, twine, paint, etc., built a model fort. It was pretty neat (we thought) with trenches, walls, look-out towers, tents, and the like. You can imagine the reaction of our teacher when we presented that to her instead of a term paper in Latin! For one thing, what was she going to do with it? Anyhow, she must have liked it a little because she gave us an "A" for our project grade.

We both participated in varsity sports, but track was the only sport we did together. I wasn´t particularly good at it, but Bill was one of the team´s stars. He was built like a long-distance runner, thin and wiry and tough as nails. We both ran the ½ mile, the 880 yds. race, where you ran as hard as you could and hoped you could finish the race. Bill ran that race like the Kentucky Derby winner this year. He would hang back in the pack until the final 100-200 yds. And then, when everyone else had their tongues hanging out, he would shift into a gear that nobody else had. He would start his kick like running a 100 yds. dash and pretty much run past everyone else before they could react. Bill always either won the race or was challenging the leader at the finish line. And then he would fall down afterwards, completely spent. This was typical of Bill, he always seemed to have an extra gear and gave it his all.

We both took up skiing in Alaska. The Army ran a ski bowl in the Chugach mountains about 5K feet up to the east of Anchorage. They only had rope tows, seven I believe, but they were hundreds of yards long with some very challenging runs. Bill and I started with the lower numbered tows like #´s 2 and 3 because the higher numbers were far more difficult runs, but one day, Bill proposed we go down the hill at # 6. That hill was almost straight down for hundreds of yards and only the more expert skiers used it. I don´t know how he talked me into it, but I said "okay" and we took the tow rope up # 6. When we got to the top, we looked over our shoulders and there was the bottom of the slope, straight down and a long way away. We gulped and started down, picked up speed fast and promptly fell in the deep snow. The skis in those days were a lot longer than now, close to 7 ft. long, and hard to turn in deep snow. We decided that we were in over our heads and could not handle going down the mountain directly, so we proceeded to ski diagonally across the mountain, stop, do a kick-turn to reverse and ski back across in the opposite direction. We zigzagged the whole way down the mountain. It took us forever but at least we got down without breaking our necks. We eventually were able to ski # 6 normally but I´ll always remember when Bill talked me into skiing #6 for the first time.

Another memorable ski outing was the time we decided to go skiing because we had a day off from school even though the weather was predicted to be sub-zero. That morning we hitch-hiked to the base of the mountain to catch the Army trucks up to the ski-bowl. There were virtually no cars on the road, and we ended up doing a lot of walking dressed in parkas with fur lined hoods, face masks, mittens and snow boots. There was an ice fog that morning and it was really cold. Finally an Army truck came along, had mercy on us and gave us a ride. We caught another truck up the mountain, rented our skis and boots and got ready for a day of skiing. We noticed that there were not many skiers on the slopes even though the tows were running but we went up for our first run anyhow. The wind chill while skiing down was enough to send the cold right through our parkas and at the bottom we did the first smart thing we had done that day. We returned our rental gear and went into the heated Quonset hut that served as a ski lodge to wait for the next truck down the mountain! We learned later that the temperature that morning had been minus 44 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that that nobody in their right mind should go downhill skiing in. Once again, we proved how oblivious teenagers can be!

After we finished high school, we both went our separate ways to college and into the military since we all were subject to the draft. Bill went to Washington State, the ROTC and into the Army and communications and I went to Annapolis and into the Navy and nuclear submarines. We still hooked up at Xmas for ski outings and sometimes during summer leaves when we were not in military training but after commissioning, we had no contact until 1967 when we both had left military service. Bill found out after contacting the Naval Academy Alumni Association that we both had settled in Maryland with our families and looked me up. We got together and my wife, Marcia, and I met Bill´s wonderful wife, Lynne, to begin a friendship that has lasted many decades. Through the years we have had many memorable times together including two trips back to Alaska. Bill and I were able to attend our 50th High School reunion in 2007. We both noted how most of our classmates looked older than we remembered!

Both Bill and I shared an interest in the outdoors and spent a lot of time together boating, hunting and hiking in the woods. We particularly enjoyed bow hunting and every year for many years would take several days to go to north central PA near the Grand Canyon of Pa. where my family had access to a hunting camp. One particular time that was memorable for me was one Sunday when Bill and I were scouting an area near the canyon for new hunting spots. We hiked in several miles and around mid-day found ourselves on a ridge overlooking a wooded gorge. The sun was shining directly on the hillside across from the ridge we were on, and the foliage was at peak color with brilliant scarlets, oranges, yellows and reds. We had a spectacular wall of color that went down hundreds of feet right in front of us. We took a lunch break there and Bill said something to the effect that we were truly lucky to be at that place together at that time to see such a remarkable sight that not many human beings ever got to see. I think that event illustrates for me how much fun it was to have Bill as a good friend for all those years.

Bill continued to push his limits right up to the end. He continued to go skiing annually until just a few years ago even though he had an ankle that was held together with bits of metal and screws and shoulders that barely functioned. I believe at the time of the pandemic he was planning a rafting trip down the Colorado River and was disappointed when he had to cancel. I mean, the guy was over 80 years old with severe physical limitations but that did not stop him...amazing! Well, I´m afraid the effects of time finally caught up with Bill as it does with all of us and he now can be at peace. REST EASY, Old Friend....

Jennifer A. Manner

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Ben

September 1, 2022

Rest in peace Bill, you will be missed.
Been Tadesse

Fred Matos

July 22, 2022

To the Hatch family...I am very sorry for your loss.

I worked with and for Bill for 30-40 years.

I recall many things....

Bill was an Army officer, stationed in Germany where he obtained his first experience in radio frequency spectrum management working on communications with NATO countries. He was later stationed at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL.

He joined the IIT Research Institute (IITRI), the contractor at the DOD Electromagnetic Compatibility Analysis Center (ECAC), in Annapolis, MD, circa 1965. He was an engineer, analyzing receivers and their susceptibility to radio frequency interference and developing the associated mathematical models.

He joined the Office of Telecommunications (OT) in the Dept, of Commerce circa 1975. (The OT was the supporting office to the Office of Telecommunications Policy (OTP), a White House Office.) He was a spectrum engineer at OT with project leadership responsibility of a major project: analyzing the DoD Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS) and its spectrum sharing with aeronautical radionavigation systems.

There was a government reorganization in 1977 where the OT was moved into a spectrum engineering office of the newly-created National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the Dept. of Commerce. He held a number of engineering and management positions at NTIA, including the chief of a division that developed spectrum engineering proposals for the United States to submit to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations treaty organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He was a leading member of the United States delegations to many ITU conferences where he was the lead negotiator on many contentious issues.

He was promoted to the Senior Executive Service when he became the Chairman of the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC) that advised NTIA on spectrum management issues. He was also an Associate Administrator and Director of NTIA's Office of Spectrum Management. He retired circa 2000.

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Lu Camara & Dutch Neumann

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Lon Levin

July 18, 2022

Bill was a colleague and friend. He played a critical role in the success of the United States's commercial satellite industry. Thanks Bill. You did well.

Lon Levin

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Robert Sole

July 18, 2022

I worked with him at NTIA and he led The Office of Spectrum Management through many tough programs that led to spectrum auctions and WiFi. He was a good leader.