William (Bill) Edward Dudley, age 68, of Windermere Florida passed away on December 15, 2012 from complications of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Bill was born on May 7, 1944 in Washington DC to Edward C Dudley and Janet B Dudley, both deceased. He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Eileen C Dudley and his two children: Brian and Sharon Dudley and his only grandchild Charlotte Dudley White.

Bill graduated from the University of South Florida in December 1970 with a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He worked for Progress Energy from 1971 until his retirement in 2008. Over the course of his career Bill held many positions within the Power Generation Division of Progress Energy: traveling maintenance crew, operations manager, power plant manager and consultant. He worked on every type of power generation: gas, oil, coal and coal-oil mixture. His career gave his family the opportunity to live in St. Petersburg, Crystal River and Winter Haven, Florida. Bill and Eileen made their retirement home in Windermere, Florida.

Bill devoted his life to his family and dear friends. He was a man who loved his wife very deeply and lived to make each day of their marriage happy, safe and secure. His children (Brian and Sharon) were the two most important people in his life next to his wife. His vision was to provide every opportunity to enhance their lives; to learn from experience and enrich not only their own lives but the lives of anyone they came to know. He enjoyed spending time with his children doing everything from changing the oil in the car to gazing at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre (France). His motto was, “as long as my family is with me, it is a great day!”

Bill loved the water and all water sports. He taught his children to drive a boat, ride wave runners, surf, water ski and scuba dive. He also taught them about the rivers and oceans that surround us.

Bill loved corvettes and was all about the restoration of his prized 1969 red Stingray convertible. He and his wife owned a number of corvettes over the years. Bill even got to take his beloved 1969 corvette to the Daytona Speedway and drive it on the oval track during a Corvette Rally!

Bill was introduced to Ham Radio by his first boss at Progress Energy, Dave Stocky and followed that hobby up until the time he was diagnosed with ALS. Ironically, his daughter-in-law Rachel is an electrical engineer and just loves the fact that Bill has all the neatest test equipment for anything electrical!

Bill and his wife made a lifelong commitment to travel as much as possible with the children as they were growing up to enrich their world view. He and his family have taken many trips within the United States including California, Hawaii, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. His favorite way to travel internationally was to take a cruise. The family has been to the Caribbean islands, Morocco, Gibraltar, Spain, France, Monaco, Italy and Great Britain on these floating hotels. Once the children were grown and on their own, the traveling continued and the empty-nesters had the fantastic opportunity to travel with close friends to Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Bill was diagnosed in February of 2011 with ALS and so one of the final trips was a 3 week trip to the country of China where he and his wife visited Shanghai (old and new city), the Terra Cotta warriors in the interior of the country and the booming city of Beijing. Their final trip was to Sapporo, Japan for the snow and ice festival.

If you were to ask anyone about Bill Dudley, the answer most often given would be that he was the “Go-To Guy” for anything from leaky faucets to oil drips to air conditioning and refrigeration. He could diagnose the problem and find a solution. The same could be said for his ability to lead, mentor and manage. He was always respectful, spoke from his heart, led with integrity and honesty and loved his family and friends deeply and unconditionally. He will be dearly missed by all who knew him.