Bill Longworth, 71, passed away on Sunday, Oct. 12, 2014 in Mount Vernon, Wash., with his family by his side.

He was born Sept. 16, 1943 in Buffalo, N.Y., to William and Kathleen Longworth. He was raised in California and graduated from Inglewood High School in 1961. He went on to attend Pierce Community College, attaining an associate’s degree in civil engineering.

He met his wife, Cindy, in the summer of 1970 through her brother, Scott. They quickly fell in love and were married by November of that year.

They honeymooned at Lake Tahoe, and stayed there for the next 20 years, raising their two sons, until they moved to Orcas Island in 1990.

After Bill and Cindy married, he worked as a civil engineer until he decided that he would rather build houses instead of just designing them. During his career, and with the partnership of Cindy, he designed and built numerous custom homes around the Tahoe basin and, for the next 24 years, in the San Juan Islands.

What brought Bill and his family to Orcas Island was the desire to help establish a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses there, because he felt that the community would benefit from learning about the bible.

Bill was well known and respected within the islands and had an excellent reputation as a fine craftsman and a kind and honest man. He also loved riding motorcycles and instilled this love in his sons. Additionally, he enjoyed building things just for fun, restoring old vehicles, reading classic fiction, and watching bad “B” old sci-fi movies.

Bill is survived by his wife of 44 years, Cindy, their children, Brian and Eric, his children from a previous marriage, Jessie, Jon and Jason, as well as seven grandchildren.

There will be a memorial service for Bill on Sunday, Nov. 16, at 2 p.m., at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in Eastsound, Wash. A reception will immediately follow at the Orcas Center. The public is invited and encouraged to attend.

— Family of Bill Longworth