William Edward Sanders

July 23, 1915 - October 1, 2014 Scan-Tron Founder Born in Selma, California, Bill moved to Redondo Beach at age ten, graduating from Inglewood High in 1933. He worked his way through college and was elected Student Body President at Glendale Junior College, where he was also a western-states regional debating champion. He graduated from USC in 1938 in Business Administration. He married Georgia Wells on November 20, 1940, but soon found himself transported in a military convoy to Northern Ireland where he worked for a defense contractor, Lockheed. He returned stateside in 1943 and was awarded a commission in the US Navy. Following the war, he helped rewrite the Manual of Naval Procurement, an ambitious project. After returning to civilian life, the young couple settled in La Canada with one son in tow and a daughter on the way. Bill began a long, successful career in business machine products. Over the years he marketed devices including early SoundScriber dictation machines and Burroughs and Olivetti calculators. The chance to be his own boss lead Bill to Denver, Colorado in 1951. In the subsequent years, his business prospered as he added 3M's original Thermo-fax copier line. The business was sold in 1963 and Bill and Georgia's family, now with four kids, returned to Southern California. Bill went to work for 3M's business products division, but felt restless no longer running the show. After a couple of years, he resigned and went looking for his next professional adventure. It came in the form of optical mark readers for school tests, first via his firm California Datronics and then later, with Scan-Tron Corporation, which he co-founded in 1972. The company's success was largely attributable to Bill's enthusiasm for the product and the discovery that, while no school had a budget line to purchase the machines, every school had funds earmarked for paper supplies. So Scan-Tron would loan the machine free of charge, with the revenues generated on the sale of forms alone. And teachers loved not having to hand grade their multiple-choice tests. The students? Well, what student ever looked forward to a test? The company grew steadily and the Scan-Tron form become a fixture of virtually every American school. Scan-Tron went public in 1983 and Bill retired as CEO a year later, but remained Board Chairman until the firm was acquired by John H. Harland Company in 1988. Retirement was a relative term for Bill, as he and Georgia traveled the world with a particular passion for Europe and Hawaii, but also California's mountains and deserts. An avid golfer and fisherman, he was the family patriarch and center of many family reunions, birthdays and anniversaries. Curious and active until Parkinson's disease was diagnosed in his mid-nineties, forcing him, reluctantly, to slowly scale back his world. Even then, his strong sense of self and humor never failed him. He passed away peacefully surrounded by loved ones at his home in Palos Verdes where he had lived since 1963. Bill is survived by his wife of 74 years, Georgia, and by his children, Shirley, Joyce and John. He was predeceased by his eldest son, George. He also leaves behind 10 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren. We are all saddened by his passing, but feel privileged to have known this warm, bright and lovely man so full of life for fully ninety-nine years.