George William Wehrung

George William Wehrung IV or "Bill" was born in Houston, Texas to George and Virginia Wehrung on September 25, 1942 and died at age 80 on November 20, 2022.

As a boy he attended Grace Lutheran School. He graduated from Brenham High School, class of 1960, and then joined the United States Navy. He was aboard the USS Zellars, USS Umpqua, USS Albany and the Nimitz aircraft carrier.

In 1964, while in Radioman "B" school, he met and married Julia Yolanda Renteria. They had 3 children together: George William Wehrung V, Virginia Agnes Wehrung (died Nov 28, 1965), and Ann Marie Wehrung.

He loved radios and motorcycles... and I know that he loved me. He always saw the best in me and he was always happy to see me.

Dad's gift was that he could fix anything mechanical or electrical. As a boy on the farm, he was interested in radios and became a ham radio operator, enthusiastically listening to and keying morse code to friends all over the world on his Virboplex - becoming a radioman in the Navy was his perfect career. His many "online" friends knew him as W5TZ.

Dad had ingenuity. One of his very early accomplishments was being in charge of erecting a tower on the hurricane ravaged island of Guam and keeping the fuel generators at the correct output necessary to keep a continuous signal of communication - quite a feat of engineering despite not having a college degree. He maintained and calibrated the Island time standard and also independently developed new antenna calibration standards. He had Top Security clearance because he dealt with cryptological services.

Dad was also quite resourceful. Before deploying to Vietnam, he attended SERE school where a group of men were left without food and given little water for a week where the goal is to survive being stranded in enemy territory and to evade capture. Before the school dropped its students into the desert, Dad slipped two baby rattlesnakes into his vest pocket. When he finally got caught by the "enemy" - he was the only one to successfully evade capture by springing the snakes upon his unwitting opponent.

In 1971 he was promoted to Chief, E-7 and was responsible for the highest levels of communications, for Flag Officers in Vietnam.

In 1975 he earned an A.S. in Electrical Engineering from Del Mar College.

In 1979, while stationed in the Philippines, back in the day of the Atari video game, Dad taught himself computer language and he wrote computer programs as his hobby. He got very upset when the power went out because that meant starting over - days worth of written code.

After 21 years of Naval service and earning 10 medals, he retired in 1981 as Radioman Senior Chief, E-8, and came home to Brenham to live on the family farm where he grew up as a boy.

In 1984 he earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M and started Brenham Technical Services - a business installing custom gate entry systems. Dad said the land never stays still -- meaning, land requires work. And work it he surely did. Just like his father, Dad was proud of his big green John Deere tractor. Below is a photo I took of Dad wearing the white bucket hat that had belonged to his father... how fitting.

Dad took joy in ordinary pleasures like consuming a Dairy Queen "Dude" burger with Dr. Pepper and a vanilla ice cream cone to boot. His favorite, however, was always Homemade Vanilla Bean ice cream from Bluebell!

He was a member of the Brenham Amateur Radio Club, but more importantly, Dad had faith in Jesus. He attended Brenham Presbyterian Church and Salem Lutheran Church. And I believe that he is now in his real home - heaven.

He is preceded in death by his parents and one daughter, Virginia Agnes and is survived by his wife of 58 years and his other two children.

Please join me in honoring the memory of my father. A Celebration of Life service will be held at 3:00 pm on March 1st, 2023 at Salem Lutheran Church with BBQ meal to follow. Please rsvp with the church office 979-836-9320

He was always quick with a warm smile; his Morse key is now silent. I love you very much Dad.

Ann Marie

~~~

Words are cheap material at the "checkout line" and expensive - so very, very expensive... Dad

Love and trust, in the space between what's said and what's heard in our life, can make all the difference in our world. Mr. Fred Rogers

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD ponders the heart. Proverbs 16:2

Show me, LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. Psalm 39:4