Willard Walter "Bill" Zwerneman

March 16, 1936-Jan. 31, 2023

Willard Walter "Bill" Zwerneman of Spring peacefully passed into the presence of his Lord and Savior on Jan. 31, 2023, in his home and surrounded by his family, following a valiant fight against cancer. He was 86.

Bill was born on March 16, 1936, in Lincoln, Texas, and helped work the family cotton farm in Lee County as a child and teenager. He played baseball and basketball and ran track at Dime Box High School, including proudly participating in a track meet for Dime Box at Texas A&M's Kyle Field in 1951.

He also attended Houston's Reagan High School after his family moved to The Heights. He then joined the Air Force, where he spent a combined 33 years in active duty and in the Air National Guard, including a stint at Ellington Field south of Houston early in his career.

In 1958 as a member of the Air Force, he met his beloved Patsy on a front porch in Huntsville, Texas, where she was a student at Sam Houston State, and they wed two months after in Houston. They were married 64 years and have six children.

Bill's children loved and appreciated him for his passion for his family and tough love, and teaching them to take care of each other and their duties while serving the Lord. His grandchildren knew him as one of the kindest and sweetest persons they'd met, a gentle giant of a man armed with a sharp wit.

He dearly enjoyed fishing at Lake Livingston, and he loved it even more when family members joined him on the lakehouse pier in a quest for hooking the perfect catfish.

Bill was beloved by many, evidenced by the stream of visitors to his home in the months prior to his passing. The many laughs, shared stories and hymns sang in that time are priceless to the family.

He was a longtime member of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in The Woodlands, where he was an usher, and he also volunteered at Habitat for Humanity before and following his retirement from the building business.

Bill had a brilliant mind for designing and building homes, and a sterling reputation spanning decades for doing the job fair and right, both in the military as a civil engineer and with his own construction company based in Spring. He often built one home at a time in and around Houston, so he could be on site and make sure the job was done right.

As a valued member of the Air National Guard, Bill's journeys spanned the globe and included construction projects on airbases in Germany, the Azores, Hawaii and Honduras, among many other remote destinations. He was interviewed by the Houston and Dallas affiliates of NBC and CBS News as part of his venerated work in Honduras.

Bill, adept at naming any airplane in sight, spoke often of how much he enjoyed serving in the military and how much he cherished relationships with his fellow guardsmen.

Along the way "Uncle Bill" was beloved for his Thanksgiving hayrides around the neighborhood behind his dependable red and white tractor, and he and Patsy for more than 50 years welcomed relatives – often numbering more than 100 – to their loving home on Thanksgiving Day.

As a younger man, an agile Bill entertained friends and family by walking on his hands and casually pole vaulting onto the roof of his home. He also played the guitar, accordion and harmonica, including playing "Blessed Assurance" on the harmonica only days before his passing and following an exhaustive six-month battle against cancer.

Not long before he passed on to Heaven, Bill with eyes closed exclaimed while reaching out, "Jimmy! Jimmy! Hallelujah!" His brother Jimmy passed on in November 2017. He also called out to his deceased mother and another deceased brother, Leroy.

Asked how Leroy looked, Bill whispered an assuring message: "Same as always."

Bill was preceded in death by his parents, Fritz and Louise Zwerneman, sisters Alice Bridges and Lois Kasper and brothers Leroy Zwerneman and James Zwerneman.

Bill is survived by his wife of 64 years, Patsy; brother Fred Zwerneman; daughter Terri King and husband James; son Stanley Zwerneman and wife Patty; son Wesley Zwerneman and wife Helene; daughter Tricia Davis and husband Norman; daughter Alayne Wegner and husband John; son Brent Zwerneman and wife Crystal; 25 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

Bill's family also sends a special thanks to caregivers Elsa Wood, Stacie Cryer, Cecelia Neel and Lumicare Hospice for their amazing attention to Bill over his final months.

Visitation will take place at Klein Funeral Home in Tomball from 2-5 p.m. Sunday, February 12. A service will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, February 13, at Lord of Life Lutheran in The Woodlands with a reception to follow. Burial will be 2:15 p.m. Monday, February 13, at Houston National Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers donations in Bill's name may be made to Lord of Life Lutheran Church in The Woodlands or the Montgomery County Food Bank. Bill in the days prior to his passing urged his relatives to care and love for their families and to have faith in Jesus.

"In the end," he said, "that's what you have left."