Bill Van Zwienen

On Sunday, October 30, 2016 there were over 40 people in attendence to honor a longtime friend of the Unitarian Universalist Society of South Suffolk, Bill Van Zweinen. Family and friends from all over came to speak about his life and what he shared with those left behind. Those who knew him as the tall gentle giant who sat in the back row at services were in for quite a memorable and moving service. Bill was quite a talented man and recognized for his skills and intelligence by many. He helped catch a Russian spy, built many homemade personal sculptures, and even had a secret society with his friends. Bill, you will be missed. Here a few words from his family.

Author: Yan Ping

​Sunday 10/30/2016 the Memorial Service

Bill, Honey,
 Today is my 65 years birthday. Four days ago, October 26,  last Wednesday, was our 15 year wedding anniversary. Today, I am with people who love you and together we celebrate your life.
 We celebrate your life. We celebrate your achievements. One of your achievements is also, my achievement, I believe, and that is our marriage, a second marriage for both of us.  We were together until the last second of your life.  
 Twenty -one years ago, in summer of 1995, we met at Briarcliff College in Woodbury Long Island.  I am proud of saying, at that time, I was your instructor; you were my student; and not the other way around.  After school was over we developed our personal relationship.  You wanted to help me and I wanted to help you. “Help each other” that made us together.  
 In 2000, we went to China. You told me that my mom said to you individually that she hoped we will be married next time we go back to China.  After 2001 9/11, you said to me “The life is short. We should get married. ”   
Bill, because of you, I overcame my broken heart for many years from my first romance with a young man.  My heart recovered because of you.  What you gave me cannot be counted by anything, such as, money. 
Now you are lying down and taking a rest. But I am still standing up. Some day we will meet again. I just want to say a temporary goodbye to you, my husband -- Bill.

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Author: Raymond Van Zwienen
​
Good afternoon.  
    I want to thank all of you---family, friends, and the members of the Unitarian Universalist Society of South Suffolk---very much for coming today to this celebration of life.  If you will permit me before I begin my remarks, I’d like to thank a few people in particular.  Thank you to Rev. Karyn O'Beirne for hosting this memorial service and for reaching out to me and to my siblings.  I’d also like to thank Eleanor who graciously took it upon herself as a personal mission to make this day happen.  You are truly an angel.  I’d like to thank my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Rich for making the trip down today from Wappinger’s Falls, New York.  It means so much to us.  
    I’d also like to give sincere thanks to my cousin, John, his wife, Sharon, and their family for being here.  You have no idea how touched we are that you made time to come today.  For those who don’t know, John and Sharon have a big---maybe I should say like a fellow New Yorker now running for President “YUGE,” beautiful family…that makes even traveling to the local grocery store a monumental logistical challenge, so driving down from upstate New York is no small feat.  FedEx and UPS would be envious of how easy you make logistics look!  Finally, I’d like to thank my sisters, Janine, from right here on Long Island and Denise, here from Philadelphia, and my brother Dan, who came up from the Norfolk, Virginia area for coming as well as my brother, Steve, who could not make the trip from El Paso, Texas, but who is here with us in spirit.
    My name is Ray Van Zwienen…Now, with a last name like that one, I’m pretty certain that you don’t need to be a card-carrying member of MENSA to have already figured out that Bill Van Zwienen and I are related.  
I’m proud to say Bill Van Zwienen was my dad.  

My dad was a good man.

    My dad was born in 1930 and grew up during the heart of the Great Depression in a working class family in Brooklyn to immigrant parents.  His father (my grandfather), Inge, was from Holland and his mother (my grandmother), Ella, was from Germany.  My grandparents really could not have been more different, at least to my recollection.  My grandfather was unquestionably, the patriarch of the family.  He was a stern, no-nonsense, get-it-done, and frankly, a somewhat intimidating figure to me as a child.  Well---unless he was drinking his beverage of choice, Schlitz Malt Liquor or maybe Rheingold for any of you who may remember those classics…then he was quite entertaining and would burst out into repeated renditions of “You Are My Sunshine.”  
    My grandmother, on the other hand, was as sweet and kind and loving as one could imagine.  She would dote over my grandfather, my dad, and especially her grandchildren.  She truly had a heart of gold.  I think my father inherited an equal portion my grandparents’ best traits.  My dad was focused, capable, and industrious like my grandfather, but he had a kind, caring soul, and was service-oriented like my grandmother.

My dad was a good man.

    I admired and looked up to my dad immensely.  Then again, most people looked up to my dad…because he was 6 foot 6.  My dad was without question one of the brightest people I’ve ever known.  He went to high school at one of New York’s, indeed the country’s, most prestigious high schools, Brooklyn Technical High School.  Unlike many high schools where kids are fighting to get out of school, you have to fight to get into Brooklyn Tech.  
Its acceptance rate is about 8 percent and its alumni include many notable people such as Nobel laureates (George Wald-Biology; Arno Penzias-Physics); Olympic medalists (Keeth and Erin Smart, Fencing; CEOs (Charles Wang – Computer Associates, Leonard Riggio – Barnes & Noble); even Entertainers such as Harry Chapin and yes, Lou Ferrigno of “Incredible Hulk” fame, all attended Brooklyn Tech---oh, and one more notable alum---Former Congressman Anthony Weiner---I have a feeling Brooklyn Tech may leave him off next year’s reunion invitations though.
    I’m told that my father graduated as the valedictorian of his class in 1948 at Brooklyn Tech, but I think that may have been family folklore, I really don’t know.  However, he certainly must have done well because he continued his education at Cooper Union in New York to study mechanical engineering.  Cooper Union is ranked #1 by U.S. News and World Reports among Regional Colleges in the North and currently has the #9 ranked Engineering program in the country for four-year colleges.  Its acceptance rate is typically in the 10-15% range.  When my dad attended Cooper Union, it was tuition free for all accepted students.  Alas, that all changed recently.  After about 185 years, Cooper Union finally decided to institute a modest tuition hike…so now it’ll cost you about $60,000 a year for tuition and room and board.  
    Not wanting to leave Brooklyn, I guess, my dad continued his education at another top engineering school, Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute where he earned his Master’s of Mechanical Engineering in 1958 and in 1972, obtained his Professional Engineer’s License.  My dad was clearly a smart guy.
More importantly, my dad was a good man.
    So, clearly with all those academic credentials in hand, my dad was obviously a big thinker.  He worked on a number of projects over his lifetime that were really quite impressive.  

Let me name just a few of the things he was a part of designing over his long engineering career:
- the automatic pin-setter
(made bowling a family game)
- the 155mm Howitzer
(a staple on the modern battlefield
- the hydrostatic automatic automobile transmission
(we can’t drive without them nowadays)
- Nuclear reactor refueling machines
(made nuclear power feasible and available)
- the Boeing 747 flap system
(the first “Jumbo Jet” and still flying today)
- Helicopter rotor transmissions
(made my Navy career as a helo pilot possible)
- the Space shuttle manipulator arm, nose docking mechanism, and cargo doors
(the first reusable spacecraft and arguably the most instrumental space vehicle in terms of scientific discovery)
- the Grumman F-14 wing sweep actuators
(The first 4th generation fighter that made “Top Gun” and Tom Cruise famous)
- the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron at Brookhaven National Lab (3 discoveries made using the AGS resulted in Nobel prizes being awarded in physics)

    My dad also was quite a prolific writer in the engineering and science fields.  He coauthored a number of scientific/engineering professional papers during the course of his career.  For example, who among you has not rushed home in the evening anxious to read one of my dad’s page-turners like “The Design of the Dipole Pick-up Coils for Use with the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron Gauss Clock” or  “The Ultra High Vacuum System of the AGS Booster” to name just two of many?
    So my dad’s work as an engineer had lasting impact on countless things we use today in everyday life.  His work led to scientific discoveries and technological innovations that better our understanding of the world and make our lives better.
My dad was clearly accomplished as an engineer, but more importantly my dad was a good man.
    My dad was also a true, blue American.  He was never able to serve in the military due to a congenital heart condition, but he loved this country and was the epitome of a patriot.  He followed my own Navy career closely and I could see the pride in his eyes when I graduated Aviation Officer Candidate School, earned my wings of gold, and had my change of command ceremony out in Long Beach, California on the deck of the Queen Mary.  Let me give you an example of my dad’s patriotic streak.  As a child, I think I was around 11 years old at the time, I remember riding home on a school bus one day, talking excitedly with my friends about the Soviet spy who was nabbed by the FBI at the Seascape Inn restaurant, not far from my house.  It was quite the event in Bay Shore as I recall.  I learned years later that it was my dad who, working undercover with the FBI over about a two-year period, was at the center of the case that led to the capture of Valery Markelov, a Russian translator for the United Nations who lived in Manhattan.  
    Markelov met my dad at an engineering convention and was attempting to steal secrets about the F-14, which my dad was working on at the time.  My dad never sought fame or fortune for his heroic foray into Cold War espionage.  The only thing he asked for was a tour of the FBI building in Washington, D.C. with his kids.  I have a photo of us at the time with FBI Director Clarence Kelley from 1977.  We were fashion-challenged in print shirts and Earth shoes to be sure, but it was a proud moment for me, Janine, Steve, and Denise.

My dad was a patriot, but more importantly he was a good man.
    For all the wonderful accomplishments in his life, it wasn’t in my Dad’s nature to brag or seek recognition.  He was unassuming and quiet.  As Reverend, O’Bierne says “he was a gentle giant.” He was always willing to help.  He loved the simple things in life.  He loved gathering for Thanksgiving Turkey roasts at Bear Mountain with his Cooper Union friends.  He loved tinkering on little projects like making a kayak to paddle around the bay in, constructing a telescope from scratch, or fashioning his own guitar and teaching himself to play.  He amazed me with his creativeness and cleverness.  He enjoyed hiking, restoring boats with his friends at the Maritime Museum, and being here with all of you at the Unitarian Society.  
    More than anything, though, my dad loved being a dad.  As children, it was sometimes frustrating being his kid.  Like most kids, especially as teens, we wanted nothing more than to fit in with our peers.  My dad wasn’t the coolest dad on the block.  He was a tad quirky, even eccentric.  Lord knows he didn’t dress well.  He didn’t drive a nice, new car.  He never showered us with expensive presents. He was so unassuming in his demeanor at times that he allowed others whom he trusted, particularly some of those closest to him, to take advantage of him.  That was painful to watch, particularly near the end of his life.
    But, while my dad wasn’t much for the material things in life, he was always there for the important things in life.  He gave us the most precious things a dad could give his children:  he gave us his love and he gave us his time.  My parents divorced when my siblings and I were young, but we could always count on my father showing up on Sunday to pick us up and take us out for the day.  I didn’t appreciate that at the time---particularly when I wanted to go out and play with my friends---but I appreciate it now.  I remember our conversations in the car when traveling to or from my grandmother’s house about literally any topic under the sun.  He always listened and allowed us to express our thoughts and opinions. He religiously sent birthday cards or postcards when he traveled.  When we were older, he called often just to say hello.  In short, my dad was present in our lives.
    So now, I want to thank all of you for indulging me and allowing me to brag about my dad for a little while.  Something my dad never would never do about himself.  It seems hard to capture in 15 minutes or so all the great things about my dad over his 86 years on this Earth.  My dad was many things.  A brilliant student, an accomplished and innovative engineer, a great friend to many, a patriot, a selfless volunteer, a faithful child of God.
          But to me, Janine, Steve, and Denise, he was above all else, simply our Dad and Our dad was a Very…Very Good Man!

​We love you and we miss you, Dad.  Until we meet again.