William McFadden

McFADDEN, William Clyde "Bill" William C. McFadden (February 25, 1911-April 12, 2007) was born in Placentia, CA. He grew up on a citrus ranch and continued a lifetime of farming in his own backyard in La Canada, CA. He graduated from Caltech in 1934 getting a design job with Walt Disney Studios to be in charge of the group that designed and built the innovative multiplane animation cameras and other devices necessary for the continuous productions of full-length animated motion pictures such as Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo and Fantasia. During wartime, Bill utilized his college major of aeronautics, working for Pan American-Grace Airlines in Lima, Peru as a Service Engineer in charge of overhaul of engines, instruments and propellers. In 1949, he went to work at Hycon Manufacturing Co. in Pasadena, CA becoming the Vice President and Chief Engineer for the development of the "B" camera for the U-2 program. In 1958, Bill and his two partners started DynaMetric, Inc. as a design and manufacturing company involved with early government surveillance hardware and then finally turning their attention to commercial telephone accessories. He retired as CEO of DynaMetric at the age of 86. Bill is survived by his wife Janet, three daughters Jill McFadden, Bonny Henderson and Julie Schermbeck, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren and his brother James M. McFadden.