In Memoriam: William Forrest "Bill" Kendall, PhD, CHP, LtCol

by Robert Cherry, Jr., CHP

William Forrest “Bill” Kendall, PhD, CHP, LtCol, U.S. Army (retired), 72, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, died 12 January 2009. He was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia, the son of Forrest O. Kendall and Yvonne Quinet, both from West Virginia and now deceased. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Elaine E. Reinhardt Kendall, formerly of Hickory and Chapel Hill.

Bill was educated at West Virginia University with an AB in premedicine and attended one year of medical school at the University of Virginia. He earned a master’s degree in public health and in 1973 a PhD in radiological hygiene at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He was certified by the American Board of Health Physics in health physics and by the American Board of Radiology in therapeutic and diagnostic physics. He was active in numerous professional societies at the national and local levels, including the Health Physics Society (HPS) and the South Texas Chapter of the HPS.

In 1981 Bill retired from the U.S. Army, after 21 years, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He served at various U.S. Army medical centers and hospitals as a health, therapeutic, and/or diagnostic physicist. Among them were Valley Forge Medical Center in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, and Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

In addition to his many posts, he also served as an ambulance commander for the Army in Germany. After leaving the military, Bill served the general public at many civilian hospitals throughout the country in Dallas and Denton, Texas; Flagstaff, Arizona; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore and Columbia, Maryland; New Britain, Connecticut; Miami, Florida; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Sayre, Pennsylvania; and finally at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville.

Burial was on 9 February 2009 at Sandhills State Veteran’s Cemetery, 400 Murchison Road, Spring Lake, North Carolina, with full military honors.

Bill’s many friends from his Army days and from his activities in the HPS remember him and miss him.