William "Bill" Doll

William (Bill) Doll passed away on July 10, 2024 surrounded by his loving family. Born in Jamaica Estates, NY, he attended P.S. 131 and graduated near the top of his class from Bayside High School. He continued his education at Union College in Schenectady, NY where he received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering, graduating as Valedictorian. While at Union, he also managed both the baseball and basketball teams. He obtained his M.S. in Electrical Engineering at Columbia University in 1955, and in June, he married Audrey and they moved to New Jersey. Bill began his career with Bell Laboratories in Whippany, NJ as a Systems Engineer designing radars and working with the Navy on defense systems. He is most proud of creating CHIRP (a radar that uses frequency modulation and pulse compression). He attended night school at Fairleigh Dickinson University and obtained an MBA, with a concentration in Economics. Bill had the opportunity to work on projects in various locations in the US and brought the family along for his work at White Sands Missile Range in NM. Following a twenty-year career at Bell Labs, he took a position at Lockheed Electronics and continued to work in the defense industry designing radars for warships and planes for the United States and other countries. He had top-secret clearance and many of the projects he designed and worked on were highly confidential. Often his family did not know where he was actually traveling to!
Bill was always curious and was a lifelong learner. He was a genius and had many passions apart from his family and that was a love of reading, classical music, chess, photography, travel, investing and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Having a job as a Page on the floor of the NY Stock Exchange as a 16-year-old, he became interested in how the stock market worked. Later he would start a Mutual Fund, The Doll Fund which was registered with the SEC. He also designed and wrote programming for a new way to track the stock market on a DOS computer!
Always interested in genealogy and where his family came from, he began to research when his relatives emigrated to the United States (some through Ellis Island) and where he still had family in the 'old country' specifically the Alsace region of France. He enjoyed traveling to see Aunt Josie in Guebweiler, France several times in the 1960's. He completed a 350-page genealogy book chronicling the family history on both his and Audrey's side. He presented the books as Christmas gifts to his children. A true labor of love and highly treasured.
Bill was a WW2 historian. He wrote letters as a child to several family members who were fighting in the war. One was in the 2nd Marine Division and fought at Guadal Canal, Saipan and Tinian. Bill took a WW2 military tour of these islands and others in the Pacific on the 60th anniversary which was very emotional for him. He had great respect for all things military and was often seen wearing a military baseball cap.
Bill lived in New Jersey for thirty years before being relocated to New Hampshire when Lockheed merged with Sanders. One by one, his children moved to NH and when he retired, he became an involved Grandpa, coaching his grandson in the Lego League making the State finals and attending soccer, baseball and basketball games. One of his greatest joys was exposing his children, grand and great granddaughters to the ballet, opera and theatre. He enjoyed 'making a date' with one of them for dinner and some 'culture.' Bill volunteered as an AARP Tax Aide and was Treasurer of the Nashua Community Concert Association. He also served as Treasurer of his Branch church in New Jersey. Bill could always be found reading multiple books at once. Bill was never idle. His thirst for information and knowledge was endless. He loved learning and imparting that knowledge to everyone he knew. He loved a great conversation and could talk on most any topic. He loved planning vacations and trips and was very involved in the Holiday Travel Club at Bell Labs. Bill visited all seven continents, over 100 countries and all 50 US States. He followed his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers, even when they moved to Los Angeles asking Alexa daily what the baseball score was!
Audrey and Bill were married for 50 years. When first married, they lived in an apartment in Madison, NJ, but moved to a starter home in East Hanover until their third child was born and they realized they needed more space. Bill designed and built the family home in Mendham Township where they raised four children. Audrey and Bill loved to entertain and had terrific neighbors that frequently got together for dinners, parties or group travel. It was a wonderful place to live.
Bill was predeceased by his parents, Theodore and Margarethe Doll, his wife, Audrey Doll and three weeks ago, his son, James Doll. He is survived by three daughters, Linda Carubia of Basking Ridge, NJ, Janice Rush (Bret) of Nashua, NH and Allison Currier (Daniel) of Nashua, NH. He also is survived by grandsons, Ryan and Jason Rush of Nashua, Nicholas and Owen Currier, Nashua and John Ross Doll, Lancaster, WI, a granddaughter, Kelsey Rush of Woburn, MA and two great granddaughters, Monica and Aubrey Rush. He is also survived by his first cousin Raymond Sturm of Oxford, CT.
Visitation will be Saturday, July 13th from 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. with a joint service for both Jim and Bill Doll to immediately follow at Davis Funeral Home, One Lock Street, Nashua. There will be a gathering with dinner immediately following at 4:30 p.m. to celebrate their lives.
Donations can be made to the Gary Sinise Foundation, P.O. Box 40726, Nashville, TN 37204
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