January 04, 1946 - October 26, 2017
William ‘Billy’ Gene Hart was born January 4, 1946 in Palo Alto, California to AV Hart and Ruth Greene. He lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for his entire life, living in many different cities such as, Palo Alto, Mt. View, E. Palo Alto, Santa Clara and finally settling in San Jose.
He graduated from Cubberley High School in the summer of 1963. He was a natural athlete and played sports including Track & Field, Basketball, Baseball and Football. He also was heavily involved in music, learning many different instruments during his high school years. He was always a hard worker, even with all of his school duties, he still held down a part time job at the creamery where his love of milk (and chocolate milk) began.
He was drafted by the Army in January of 1966, where he served the majority of his time in Alaska working with computers. He excelled in anything that he learned; this and his passion for computers would lead to his life long career in the ever growing computer industry. He started out working with punch cards on main frame computers at Optimum Systems Inc., and he quickly fell in love with programming. Over the years he learned many different computer languages and continued to push himself to grow with the computer age. His knack for learning and his training led him to work for various companies such as, Four Phase, Interlink, Boole & Babbage, and finally he retired from BMC in December 2011.
During this 45 year journey he met the love of his life, Geneva Dillard in Washington D.C. in the spring on 1973. The two hit it off and after two years of a long distance relationship, they were wed March 1, 1975. William and Geneva then moved to a house in San Jose in 1976, and have lived there ever since. On May 20, 1981 they welcomed their only child Jonathan into the world.
The three would spend many hours on the road traveling and every summer he and the extended family would venture up to Lake Tahoe to enjoy the lake. He always enjoyed watching the water and listening to waves. Music was also very important to him, as he has a very extensive music collection on many different mediums from throughout the years. His favorite stories were that of Science Fiction from a myriad of authors which later led to his love of Sci Fi movies and TV shows, most notably Stargate.
He is survived by his wife of 42 years Geneva and Son Jonathan (Tasha); sister Cleo; Brother in law Bishop Early (Janice); Nieces Rosalind (Jacob) Natasha and Tonia (Eric); Nephew Tomas (Kali); and grand nieces and nephews Lincia, Kole, Christian, Jasmine, London, Rhiana, Ashton, and Hayden; also many aunts and uncles and many more cousins. He is preceded in death by his parents AV Hart and Ruth Greene; and brother Ronald Lee Hart.
He will be deeply missed by his family and will always be remembered for his sense of hard work, his generosity to those in need both friends and strangers, his sense of humor and his smile. His need for more information compelled him through life and will continue through the people he has influenced over the years. A viewing will take place on Friday, November 3rd, 2017 at Jones Mortuary in East Palo Alto from 5:30 – 9:00 pm. There will also be a memorial service held on Saturday, November 4th, 2017 at Bible Way Christian Center, in San Jose at noon.