Rash's Surname Index
Notes for William Woodward SELLERS
William Woodward Sellers, age 85, died peacefully on Saturday, June 3, 2006, at home, with his wife, Nancy, by his side.
Mr. Sellers graduated from The Haverford School in 1940 and the University of Pennsylvania, class of 1944. He was an Eagle Scout from Troop Devon #50, receiving the Distinguished Eagle Award in 1988, an award President Gerald Ford received the previous year. Bill served as an officer in the Navy aboard the USS Rombach during World War II and was involved in anti-submarine warfare in the Pacific. By the end of the war, he was the commanding officer of the ship. Both of his brother, Frank and Coleman IV, were officers in the regular Navy. Frank was in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theatres, serving in destroyers Coleman "Jim", served on the USS Houston, and died when the ship was sunk in the Java Sea in 1942.
After leaving the Navy, Bill was employed by Baldwin Locomotive Works and later was founder and president of The Sellers Company, Inc., which became a leader in state-of-the-art asphalt heating equipment and energy conservation associated with this equipment. Bill received several awards for his design systems, the most recent from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers at a reception at the Franklin Institute last year. Bill had 5 United States and 2 Canadian patents. In 1986, the National Asphalt Pavement Association awarded him its Industry Recognition Award for outstanding contributions in the paving industry.
Bill was an enthusiastic tennis player, sailor, golfer and skier. He participated in People to People Tennis throughout Africa in 1991 as a player and ambassador of the game. He was a member of the Merion Cricket Club, Martin's Dam Club, the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Cincinnati, the Military Order of Foreign Wars, and the Society of Colonial Wards. He also served on the Chester county Council Boy Scouts of America. Bill was a longtime summer resident of Lake Naomi in the Pocono Mountains and a member of the Lake Naomi Club. Bill was a lifelong Philadelphian, whose ancestors arrived in the area in 1681, 6 months prior to William Penn. He was a descendent of Charles Willson Peale, founder of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Bill is survived by his wife of 52 years, Nancy Fields Sellers; his children, Sally S. Costanzo and Coleman Sellers VI; 5 grandchildren, Marina, Sabine, Zoey, Coleman VII and Sophia; his brother, Frank R.S. Sellers; and his sister, Kathlyne K. Birdsall.
A memorial service in Bill's memory will be held at 11 am on Friday, June 9, at the Church of the Redeemer, Pennswood and New Gulph Rds, Bryn Mawr, PA. Interment will be private.
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