William "Bill" Pope Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

William E. (Bill) Pope was born on April 28, 1943 in Nashville, TN to the proud parents of Hammond E. and Eva Mai Pope, the first of eight children. He attended Pearl High School where he studied Basic Electronics. He had a calling to serve his country and joined the U.S. Army in 1961. He took Basic Training and Advanced Infantry Training in Fort Jackson, SC. and graduated as a Communication Crewman. His first permanent assignment was at Fort Meade, Maryland as a Wireman, Private First Class. His first overseas assignment was in Butzbach, Germany where he served from 1961-1967 in the Seventh Army Signal Group. It was in this time in Butzbach where he met and married his beautiful wife Brigitte, and fathered three beautiful daughters Carmen, Agnes and Petra, and two step daughters, Juritta and Ute. During this period he also kept his promise to his parents and completed his GED with the University of Maryland. With energy and enthusiasm, he continued his pursuit of educational achievement and graduated from the Seventh Army Non- Commissioned Officers Academy in Bad Tolz, Germany, and was selected as class spokesman for the class of 1964. He then went on to graduate from the Seventh Army Signal School as Multi-Channel Radio Relay and Carrier Operator. In early 1967 he returned to the USA with the 1st Calvary Division Fort Hood, TX. He was given an immensely important assignment in charge of emergency backup communication for President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration’s telephone system in Texas. Where President Johnson spent the majority of his time when he was not at the White House in Washington DC. Later that year he was called again for active duty to serve in Vietnam, and was deployed on Christmas Day. He served there on the Main Communication Relay Site in Quen yon, South Vietnam. It was during this time that his wife Brigitte had received several pieces of correspondence reporting Bill’s death. It was 30 days later that Bill corresponded directly with Brigitte to say “Despite those notices, I am still alive.” Bill served his country valiantly in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. He then returned to Darmstadt Germany in 1968 through 1971. He served there in the 32nd Air Defense Command where he was responsible for over 75 thousand miles of communication and the first Mobile Microwave Communications System. In early 1971 he returned to the 1st Calvary Division in Fort Hood TX. where he was primarily stationed through 1979. He served as Communication and Electronic Operations Chief and First Sergeant. During that time he also attended several military schools including two years at Central Texas College. In late 1971 through 1972 he served in Korea with the Eighth Army as an Inspector for Communication and Electronics throughout the entire Republic of Korea. In late 1972 he returned to an assignment in the United States, to the 1st Calvary Division Fort Hood TX. There he was responsible for testing the new Tacfire System developed by Litton Corporation, and took part in putting on a Future War capability Demonstration for President Jimmy Carter. In 1979-1982 he served in Zweibrucken, Germany as Training and Communications and Electronics Operation Chief in charge of several radio relay sites and the first military intercontinental satellite system in Landstuhl, Germany. In 1982 he returned again as Sargent First Class to the United States and was assigned duties of the 101st Airborne in Fort Campbell, KY. There he served as Post Communications and Electronic NCOIC and Communication & Electronics Operations Chief, and the Administrations NCO for the United States Army Communications Command. After 24 years of honorable service, he retired from the United States Army Information System Command on May 1, 1985 with the following awards: Army Service Ribbon Two Overseas Service Ribbons Seven Good Conduct National Defense Service Medal Vietnam Service medal with five Campaign Stars Meritorious Unit Commendation Bronze Star Medal Vietnam Campaign Medal Vietnam Cross of Gallantry w/ Palm Expeditionary Medal (Korea) NCO Professional Development Ribbon Army Commendation Medal Meritorious Service Medal and numerous Letters of Commendation. After his Army retirement, he and his wonderful bride Brigitte returned to his beloved roots of Nashville, where he could be with siblings and childhood friends. Upon returning to Nashville, he began his second career in 1985 with the United States Postal Service. He worked there for three years and departed to pursue a full-time teaching career in electronics at Elkins Institute of Technology. In true Bill Pope fashion, he went from Instructor to Director of Education in two years. At that point the US Postal Service requested that he return, which he did in August 1987. During his remaining years with the Postal Service, he held positions as On the Job Training Instructor, Quality of Work Life Coordinator, Quality facilitator for City Operations, Mail Handler, Academy Instructor, and Mail Tracking Analyst. He supervised or worked in the air mail facility, in the business center as a customer service representative in almost every section of the processing and distribution center. His work ethic and dedication earned him numerous letters and certificates of appreciation and monetary awards. His community involvements and social activities included The Masons, Coaching Jess Needy Junior Boys Baseball, President of Parent Advisory Committee at Hunter Lane Comprehensive High School, He was a member of the Education Alliances, a Facilitator for Nashville Coalition Against Racism (NCAR), NAACP, First Class Flyers Chapter of Toastmasters International Club, a Deacon of the Valley View Baptist Church, and most of all the African American Postal League United for Success. “A-PLUS”. Bill Pope was preceded in death by two of his siblings, Larry Pope and Diane Hussey, and his beloved grandson, Mitcheal,Dwight Eugene Pope III. He leaves behind his beloved wife Brigitte with whom he would have celebrated their 56th anniversary on October 30th of this year. He also leaves his phenomenally caring and loving daughters, Carmen, Agnes and Petra and his two step-daughters Juritta and Ute, as well as grandchildren Randal, Ramar, Michael, Natasha, and Amir; his siblings, Vernell Sandefur, Nathanial Pope, Brenda Pope Maurice Pope, and Macie Pryor. He also leaves a host of many wonderful and loving nieces, nephews and great-grans. Bill Pope had an enormous and remarkable success in both of his two career journeys. The journey that William E Pope was most proud of was his journey as a loving and devoted husband, a father with boundless commitment and love for his children, and his amazing friendships and immensely strong bond “I’m always there for you.” with his siblings and dear friends. As Rudyard Kipling said in his poem If - If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss, And lose and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss. If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch. Yours is the Earth, and everything that’s in it. William E Pope inherited the earth while he was here, and now he has inherited heaven. As we consider Bill Pope moving forward, we thought this poem by the United States President, Jimmy Carter, was very appropriate. A Committee of Scholars Describes the Future Without Me Some shy professors, forced to write about a time that’s bound to come when my earthly life is done described my ultimate demise in lovely euphemistic words invoking pleasant visions of burial rites with undertakers friends, kinfolks and pious pastors gathered round my flowery casket eyes uplifted breaking new semantic ground by not just saying I have passed on joined my maker or gone to the Promised Land but stating the lamented fact in the best and gentlest terms that I, now dead, have recently reduced my level of participation.

William "Bill" Pope

September 26, 2018