Willis E "Bill" Lowery, 82, died Wednesday, July 13, 2016 peacefully with his beloved wife by his side. Born in Rochester, New York to Willis "Deac" Lowery and Louise Langan Lowery, Bill graduated from Aquinas High School and University of Rochester, after which he began a 25 year career in the US Navy, retiring as a CMDR in 1979.

Bill began his naval career with an assignment in Newport, Rhode Island in 1955 where he met the love of his life, Julia Teehan. After marrying his beautiful bride on August 30th, 1958, Bill proceeded on to a naval career that took him and his growing family to Key West, FL; Idaho Falls, ID, Charleston, SC; Norfolk, VA; Newport News, VA; Monterrey, CA; Bremerton, WA and Mechanicsburg, PA. Bill and Julia created a family of five, enjoyed many adventures, and made good friends before deciding to retire in Newport News, where Bill employed his engineering skills and long-time interests in computers to pursue a second career as a computer technician and systems engineer with Tektronix Inc., Apollo Inc., Hewlett Packard, and Silicon Graphics, Inc.

Upon retiring from the computer industry Bill was able to focus on what he loved: his wife, serving his community, tinkering with his home computer, working on cars, sharing his knowledge with his many grandchildren, and giving everyone he met a hard time.

Bill is survived by his wife of 58 years, Julia Teehan Lowery; two sons, James Lowery and wife Ruth of Springfield, Virginia and Matthew Lowery and wife Carter of Williamsburg, Virginia; and three daughters, Mary Brown and fiancé Tim Martin of Newport News; Katherine Asjes and husband, CDR(ret) David Asjes, USN of Ames, Iowa; and Margaret Keppel and husband COL David Keppel, USAR of Charlottesville, Virginia. Bill was blessed with sixteen grandchildren: Timothy Brown and wife Kady; Nicholas, Julia, Cornelia, Stanley, Peter, and Margaret Asjes; Emma, Elizabeth, David, and Esther Keppel; Nathan, Blake, Daniel and Lowery; Suzanne Ashby and husband Bryce and Diane Close and husband Bobby; great-grandchildren: Carter and Caleigh Brown; Trey, Alexander, and Colin Close.

He is survived by his sister, Mary Fitch and husband Clarence of Rochester, NY, sister-in-law Connie Lowery of Binghampton, NY and one brother-in-law, James Teehan of Newport, Rhode Island. He is preceded in death by his brother Peter Lowery, sister Barbara Lowery, brother-in-law John Teehan, and sister-in-law Katherine Teehan Holder,

The family will receive friends from 5:30-7:00PM , Tuesday, July 19, 2016 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 100 Harpersville Rd, Newport News, VA 23601. A funeral Mass will be celebrated immediately following at 7:00PM . In lieu of flowers, the family requests gifts be made to Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, 52 Harpersville Rd, Newport News, Va. 23601.