William Berry Bankhead


 

 

William Berry Bankhead, 48, and a devoted husband, father, brother and son, passed away on Sunday, December 24, 2017 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, CA. He was born in Albany, Georgia and spent his childhood in Nashville, Tennessee. He studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he met his wife, Carol Henry, and obtained two bachelor’s degrees in Aeronautical/ Astronautical Engineering and Political Science. He then further pursued his master’s degree in Political Science at University of California at Berkeley. Following school, he worked for Accenture, Caesars Entertainment, Kaplan University and most recently, Disney Interactive as a data scientist.

Will and Carol married in 2001 and enjoyed traveling and raising their boys. Will loved reading, history, travel, listening to NPR podcasts, sports and discussing politics. He leaves behind his wife, Carol, and two sons, Benjamin, 13, and Alexander, 10; his mother, Ruby Bankhead of Nashville; his brother, Anthony Bankhead of Alexandria, VA; his cousins, Karen Mtshali of Nashville and Cris Smith of Atlanta, GA; and a host of beloved relatives and supportive friends.

Services will be held in both Northern and Southern California on consecutive weekends. Visitation will be held on Friday, January 26th from 5 to 9 pm at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks – Griffin Mortuary at 5600 Lindero Canyon Rd., Westlake Village, CA 91362. The funeral will be held on Saturday, January 27th at 10 am at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks – Griffin Mortuary. The Celebration of Life will be held immediately following the funeral at Oak Park Community Center at 1000 Kanan Road, Oak Park, CA 91377. In Northern California, a graveside service will be held on Saturday, February 3rd at 10 am at Mountain View Cemetery, 5000 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, CA 94611. This will be followed by Celebration and fellowship – 11:30 am at Little Shin Shin’s, 4258 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, CA followed by Fenton’s Ice Cream at 4226 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, CA

Pictures can be sent to Jennifer Jackson at jajaxon@prodigy.net as we would like to create a sense of his life from all avenues for the boys to get a fuller idea of this amazing man.

We would also like to ask for everyone to send their favorite recipe to Lisa Patrick at lisap9731@gmail.com. Will loved to cook and this will give us a chance to share his love of cooking with those who loved him. We will then create a combined recipe book so that everyone can have a tasty keepsake.

In lieu offlowers, please feel free to donate to any of the following locations:

– Institute for Myeloma and Bone Cancer Research. Donations can be made in several ways:

1. By check made payable to: The Institute for Myeloma and Bone Cancer Research (IMBCR) with remark “In Memory of William Bankhead,” 9201 Sunset Blvd., Suite 300, West Hollywood, CA 90069

2. Visit www.imbcr.org and make a secure online donation

– MIT in honor of William Bankhead at https://giving.mit.edu/bankhead/

– Bethlehem Center of Nashville – http://www.bethlehemcenters.org/support-us/give/ – with annotation of “In Memory of William Bankhead”

– Norwood Elementary PTA/Chess in memory of William Bankhead, 19810 NW 14th Ct, Miami, FL 33169