George "Bill" Rollosson

Bill was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on October 13, 1923. His parents, George Welker and Josephine Cambier Rollosson moved to Crowley, Louisiana where he attended St. Michael's High School. After graduating in 1940 he earned his bachelor's degree in Physics at Southwestern Louisiana Institute in Lafayette. He continued his education earning a Master's Degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then taught for a year at Southwestern--now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

In the fall of 1951 he started working for Sandia Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was involved in measuring the effects of atomic weapons, which were tested in Nevada and in the Marshall Islands of Bikini and Eniwetok. In 1952 he completed the requirements for his PhD in Physics from the University of New Mexico. In 1965 Bill was hired by Stanford Research Institute in California. The company was involved in contract research mainly for the government. One of his assignments took him to Bangkok, Thailand for two years working on a contract for the army. Bill's last job was as a professor at Menlo College in Atherton, California where he taught physics, pre-engineering and computers for 22 years. During that time he spent three summers in Washington, D.C. at the Naval Research Lab writing calibration plans for a cosmic ray satellite.
Bill married Q Lovely Little in 1958 and acquired a family, since Q had a 12 year old daughter, Ginger. He and Q had twin daughters, Terri Jo and Shelli Ann, in 1961. Because Shelli had Downes Syndrome, he and Q became active in groups promoting a better life for these children. One of the reasons for moving to California was the improved services they could get for Shelli. Terri graduated from Stanford University earning a Bachelor of Science and Master's Degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biology respectively.

In 1992 Bill retired from teaching. He and Q remained in Palo Alto for two years before moving to Fort Collins, Colorado. Bill loved to travel, play bridge, work puzzles and read. He and Q traveled all over Europe, cruised the Volga River in Russia, cruised the Caribbean and railed across Canada to Alaska. They visited numerous areas of the U.S. as well, treating their granddaughter, grandson and son-in-law to visits to Washington, D.C. when Bill was working with the Navy. They collected art work in Alaska and Thailand, and many of their favorite pieces of furniture were hand made from Thai teak. In Fort Collins they made many friends playing in bridge groups and supporting the CSU Rams women's basketball teams when Becky Hammon played and the volleyball teams coached by Tom Hilbert. Bill continued to attend the volleyball games as often as possible and when he could not attend he followed them on the radio.

Bill is survived by his daughter Ginger Cook and her husband Bill; his grandson JD Cook and his wife, Kari, and their children Kayli and Liam; his granddaughter Tammy Shier and her husband, Brad, and their children Shelby, Natalie and Christopher; his nephew Curt Rollosson and his wife, Jenny; his grandnephew Cambie and his family; his grandniece Senn and her family; and his niece Connie McCay and her husband Mick.