Bill was born December 10, 1917, one of four children of Clara and Edward W. Kruse in Chicago, Illinois. He married the former Evelyn J. Collins of Jackson, Tennessee, who predeceased him in April, 2011.
Survivors include three sons, Keith (and the late Marie Donegan Kruse) Kruse, Dickson, Scott (and Margaret) Kruse, Burns, and Blake (and Allison) Kruse, Dickson; nine grandchildren, Keith Kruse, Jr., Wendy Tidwell, Michelle Mills, Danny Kruse, Will Martindale, Molly Martindale, Collins Kruse, Garrett Kruse, and Grant Kruse; eight great grandchildren, Kayla Kruse, Katie Kruse, Chris Mills, Heather Mills, Danielle Kruse, Brooke Kruse, Logan Kruse, and Kendall Kruse.
Mr. Kruse received his pre-college education in the Chicago Public Schools and in 1939 was granted a B.S. Degree in Chemical Engineering from Illinois Tech where he was a 4-year letterman in baseball as their pitcher. Additional studies were taken at Iowa State College, Illinois Tech, and Cornell University.
Before starting his 36-year work career with the E. I. DuPont Corporation, he was employed by Standard Oil of Indiana, Celotex, and the U. S. Ordnance at Ankeny, Iowa. He joined DuPont in 1944 with their Engineering Department where he provided engineering assistance to manufacturing plants at six different locations. In 1954, he transferred to the DuPont Pigments Department as Technical Superintendent of their Edgemoor, Delaware plant. In 1956 he was given the responsibility to assemble and head up and engineering task force to build a new plant in New Johnsonville, Tennessee to manufacture Titanium Dioxide White Pigment. When construction was completed, task force personnel were relocated from Delaware to New Johnsonville to assist in start-up of the new plant.
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