Bill & Nancy Akers Ages 88 (Bill) and 85 (Nancy) Bill was born in 1922 and grew up in Graham, TX, about 90 miles west of Fort Worth. His father had a soda bottling business and later was a distributor of farm produce. He died of congestive heart failure when Bill was a Junior in high school. Bill had no siblings and started school at Age 5. He was played football in high school and was valedictorian, graduating at Age 16. At the time his high school only went through the 11th grade. Because he had an aunt, grandmother and other relatives in Lubbock, and because he had a full scholarship, Bill went to Texas Tech. He started out in Petroleum Engineering, but switched to Chemical Engineering. He was in ROTC, graduated in 1943 and began to serve in the army at Fort Belvoir, near Washington, DC. However, he was soon discharged because of an irregular heartbeat. Bill completed his Masters in Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas in only 9 months, then went on to the University of Michigan, where he completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 2 years. He graduated in 1947 at Age 24. He met Nancy, who was born in Detroit, at U of M and they got married one day after he received his Ph.D. They moved to Dallas, where Bill started work at the Production Research laboratory of Atlantic Refining. After only a few months he was recruited to join the Chemical Engineering faculty at Rice in Houston, where he remained for the rest of his career until he retired in 1993. Some of Bill's career highlights were:
Consulting for Hudson Engineering from 1948 until about 1960.He often took students for field testing of plants built by Hudson.
He always taught the chemical engineering Design course at Rice, which is now named for him.
Nine months in Yugoslavia as a consultant on rebuilding their chemical and metallurgical industry in 1962-63.
Design of the first artificial heart in collaboration with Dr. DeBakey and others starting in the late 1960s.
A move into administration at Rice, serving as a vice president during the final years of his career.
Nancy grew up in Michigan. She had a brother who has passed away. She was an art major at the University of Michigan and went into teaching art. When she and Bill moved to Houston she taught initially in the Houston Independent School District: 2nd grade for one year and junior high school for one year. After her children were born she began teaching art to deaf children through a program run by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and continued to do this full or part time for over 30 years, until 1991. Bill and Nancy had two daughters, born in 1951 and 1953. Both live in Houston and neither has children. Over the years Bill pursued his interest in sailing, working himself up from a Sunfish to a 28-foot boat and participating in racing. He also loves fly fishing and frequently went to Colorado. In their retirement years, Bill and Nancy have done a lot of traveling. They went to Europe once or twice a year for about 10 years. They also traveled to Missouri and Colorado for fishing. Bill took on a variety of other retirement activities, including heading the South Texas section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, working at the Christian Community Service Center, doing income tax preparation for seniors through AARP's program, and serving on the board of the Salvation Army. He also served as a volunteer visiting professor at Prairie View A&M College, where he taught the senior Chemical Engineering Design course for 2 years. Bill and Nancy moved to The Hallmark in late 2004. Bill has served as president at Hallmark and has taken on projects helping other residents. Nancy continues to paint and make original greeting cards for her friends. They attribute their health and alertness to remaining active, exercising regularly and eating a healthy diet.
