William P. McGarry

EAST SYRACUSE, N.Y. — William Peter McGarry, 82, died on March 19, 2008.

He was son of the late Peter F. and Isabella McGarry, of Carnegie, Pa.

Mr. McGarry was a devoted husband, father, grandfather and a physicist.

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Roberta (Wimsatt) McGarry; three sons and their wives, Michael and Dorothea McGarry, of Sandy Hook, Conn., Peter and Cindy McGarry, of Raleigh, N.C., and Andrew and JoAnn McGarry, of Western Springs, Ill.; two daughters Joanna McGarry and husband Frank Postle, of East Kingston, and Molly McGarry and husband Eilert Bonk, of East Syracuse; eight grandchildren, Apryl, Steven, Meghan, Erin, and Caitlin McGarry, Benjamin Robinson, and Isabella and Abigail Postle; two sisters and their families, Joanne McGarry, of Carnegie, and Nancy and Joe Niedenberger, of Chardon, Ohio.

He was predeceased by one sister, Kathleen McGarry.

WE REMEMBER: Graduating early from high school, he left the steel mills to enlist in the U.S. Navy in support of World War II. He served as an officer aboard the USS Admiralty Island aircraft carrier in the Pacific Theatre.

He later took advantage of the GI Bill to graduate from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in physics and continued with graduate work at Columbia University.

Upon the national challenge delivered by the launch of the Russian Sputnik, Mr. McGarry was selected to join a talented team of physicists for which he played an instrumental role in developing critical monitoring systems for various national space programs — including Apollo 11, for which he directly designed and tested critical systems for the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) which first landed on the Moon.

After a successful career with IBM Research, William and his beloved wife Roberta realized their life-long dream of retiring on Cape Cod in Chatham, Mass., where they enjoyed 14 happy years. In 2007, they relocated to East Syracuse, N.Y., to be closer to family.

A private family ceremony is planned.

Memorial donations may be made to The Eldridge Public Library, 564 Main Street, Chatham, Mass., 02633.