I'll Remember Bill

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Bellomo, William Paul
Bellomo William Paul Bellomo age 75 of Upland passed away December 12th, 2006 at home. He was born April 13th, 1931 in Chicago, IL and was an Upland resident 42 years. William was a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran, Korean War; a graduate of Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL and an engineer with McDonnell-Douglass for 25 years. He is survived by his wife - Ellen, Upland; 2 daughters- Patricia (Tere) Worsham, Upland; Sheila (Neil) Myers, Laguna Niguel; 5 Grandchildren - Brendan, Katherine, Paige, Liam and Patrick. Bill was the supervisor who promoted me to my 1st supervisory position in DAC (actually it was McDonnell Douglas at the time) in 1976. I didn't even know that I had been submitted for pro- motion at that time. We had gone to a meeting in the "Wine Room"....called so because of the color of the room, not that wine was served. Ken Derryberry was our then manager of Industrial Engineering. I remember one time when I was working in Bldg. 89, the place where the Ejection Seats were being made for fighter jets. The above photo is an ACES II Seat. This was the primary seat we manufactured, and the one we developed work packages for during the 6 month strike, where we "management" personnel were fortunate enough to keep working, building the product. Bill was working the final line with Bob Boulette, and was putting the finishing touches on one of the seats. When he put the paper up for final inspection, it was determined that the firing pin on one side was riding. The inspector told Bill to "kiss the hole" with a reamer to fix the problem. Bill immediately went to his tool box, got out an item, and proceeded to clean up the hole. I was working down the line. All of a sudden, I heard a horrible grind- ing sound.....over and over for what seemed to be a minute or more. Bill had unknowingly picked out a rotary file rather than a reamer, and turned the small riding condition into a large oblong hole! What would've been a minor fix, became major...the whole side of the seat had to be removed and replaced and the part with the oblong hole scrapped, back drilled, and reinstalled on the seat. From then on, Bill knew what a reamer was and never again got it mixed up with a rotary file! That was but one event that I recall about Bill. He was always in a good mood, and I'd have to say he was my favorite supervisor at DAC. He taught IE classes at LBCC, and you could be sure (so I was told) that class was let out early on Monday night, so Bill could catch part of the game. I'll remember Bill!