William A. ‘Bill’ Gwyn, 66, died June 26, 2008, in Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
Born in Suffolk, Va., he was the son of the late Loyal V. and Christine T. Gwyn. Mr. Gwyn was the owner and operator of Gwyn Automotive Machine Shop.
Bill took up the mechanic’s trade early on. His mother told the story of Bill dismantling and re-assembling a child’s wagon when he was little more than a toddler. That talent led eventually to motorcycle racing, work in a Portsmouth motorcycle shop, drag racing, boat motors and stock-car racing. He spent countless hours in the boat-building shop of the late Henry Lauterbach, the renowned hydroplane builder in Portsmouth.
Bill started his own automotive repair shop about 1963, first in Driver, then on Hall Avenue in Suffolk, and finally Gwyn Automotive Machine on Dill Road in Suffolk. He began, he said, with just a few wrenches and an arc- welder. He so enjoyed building racing cars and engines that he often said he never had a real job. Bill was also a state AAU springboard-diving champion as a young teenager.
He was born in Suffolk and lived on Second Avenue until the family moved to Portsmouth in 1951. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth and attended Old Dominion College’s Technical Institute. He married high-school sweetheart Brenda Faye Simmer in 1965, and the newlyweds moved to Suffolk, never to leave.
He was a 36-year veteran of the National Guard, retiring as a master sergeant and regretting only that he did not get to go to Bosnia with the Guard in 1991.
For many years, Bill and Brenda spent their weekends at his mother’s childhood home in Meredithville, Brunswick County, restoring the 1882 farm house and property. A windmill project for the farm pond remained unfinished at his death.
Bill is survived by his wife, Brenda Gwyn; brother and sister-in-law, Miles and Nancy Gwyn of Annapolis, Md.; cousins, Susan Sarro and Christina Taylor, both of Newport News; mother-in-law, Margaret V. Simmer; sister-in- law, Gloria Henry and her husband, John, all of Portsmouth; nieces and nephew, Robert F. Pablo Jr., Christine Hudson, Bene Matthews; great- nephews, Robert F. Pablo III, Jody C. Matthews IV; great-nieces, Nicole Pablo, Chelsie Hudson, Amber Matthews.
A memorial service will be conducted by Paula Lippard Justice, PhD. of Religious Society of Friends ‘Quakers’ Sunday at 4 p.m. in the R. W. Baker & Co. Funeral Home & Crematory, 509 W. Washington St., Suffolk, VA 23434. The family will receive friends in the funeral home Sunday from 2:30 p.m. until service time.
Memorial donations may be made to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 129, Suffolk, VA 23439.
Condolences may be registered at www.rwbakerfh.com.
