Captain William “Bill” Jennings Carroll Jr. was born on January 1, 1935 in Pitt County, North Carolina. During WW2, Bill moved with his parents to Oak Ridge, TN where his father William Sr. was an Electrical Engineer working on “Little Boy” the 1st Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.  In 1945, Bill and family moved back to Greene County to a small town named Maury, where he attended high school graduating in 1953.  During his time in Maury as a member of the FFA he developed a love for animals, almost as equal to his love of flying being a teenage officer in the Civil Air Patrol.  His Uncle Dow Waters a WW2 US Navy pilot, also a member of the Civil Air Patrol got him interested in flying as a teen, and upon graduation from Maury High joined the Air Force as an enlisted man.  Working hard he eventually got an opportunity to attend Officers Candidate School, graduating as a 2nd Lieutenant then entering flight training.  Graduating from flight school in 1956, he would later become Jet Fighter Pilot, as well as a Jet Fighter Pilot Instructor, as he would say “Flying with the ease of an Eagle”.  Captain Carroll leaving the Air Force in 1959 to raise a family entering the private sector in the Management program for Carolina Telephone in Rocky Mount, NC began his 35 year career as a Traffic Mgr., District Mgr., Division Mgr., and ending as Administrator of Operator Services. During his tenure there, he always had time for his family and community being a Scout Master, Power Squadron Commander, and Baseball Coach, but the littlest things his love for people, and that of animals I remember the most.  Dad was always rescuing animals, before there was such a thing as Rescues.  I’ve seen him attempt to hatch birds when eggs were abandoned; rescue Bobcat kittens recovered in a rain storm that had lost their mom, and domestic kitties that had no home.  Us Carroll’s don’t have to ask where we found our compassion for God’s creatures, as we inherited those values from our Father, Bill Carroll.  We know he is watching our dream unfold and is cheering us on from Heaven.  This ones for you Dad!  Captain Bill Carroll much to our heartbreak passed away on December 16, 2009.

– Kathy Carroll Heath and Christopher Carroll