William Grant Carson

Published 10:20 am Tuesday, February 27, 2024

 William Grant Carson, 88, passed away on Sunday, February 25^th, 2024 at Wellstar West Georgia Medical Center in LaGrange, Georgia.

     Grant was born in Kentucky and reared in Alabama.  He graduated from Lanett City High School where he was Senior Class President.  In 1957 he was awarded a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Auburn University, where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta social fraternity and Phi Kappa Phi scholastic fraternity, and was commissioned as an Ensign in the U. S. Navy.

     Grant attained the rank of Captain and retired from the Navy in 1985.  While in the Navy he served at sea, ashore and overseas.  He was awarded a Bronze Star with Combat V for service in Vietnam and commanded the USS Thomaston (LSD-28) and the NROTC Unit at UCLA.  He earned a MS in Mechanical Engineering from the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School and the Mewborn Award for best use of mathematics in a thesis.  He was also a diplomat of the U. S. Naval War College and the U. S. Army War College.

     After the Navy Grant was employed by McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company as a Senior Engineer-Scientist in California and Texas for 15 years.

     Grant was married for 42 years to Margaret Coppedge of Auburn.  He is survived by their son, Grant Houston, of Michigan, and three grandchildren.  After Margaret had passed on, Grant was married to MaryAnn Deffebach of Tyler, Texas for 11 years.  They made their home in Gainesville, Texas.  After MaryAnn passed Grant was married to Shirley Terry, a classmate at Lanett High School.

     Grant and Shirley made their homes in Gainesville and Lanett, alternating in between the two.  In Gainesville, Grant was a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and the North Central Texas Chorale.  Grant was also a member of Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, Barbershop Harmony Society, U. S. Naval Institute and the Academy of Model Aeronautics.

     A funeral mass with military honors will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Gainesville, Texas at a later date.

     Grant’s family will receive friends Tuesday evening from 6:00 until 8:00 PM (EST) at the Johnson Brown-Service Funeral Home in Valley, Alabama.

     Please visit Grant’s Memorial Tribute page at www.johnsonbrownservicefh.com to leave a kind word for his family, to share a memory of Grant, or to light a Remembrance Candle in his memory.

     Johnson Brown-Service Funeral Home of Valley directing.