William C. Ferguson
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William Charles Ferguson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 26, 1930 |
| Died | October 14, 2015 (aged 84) |
| Education | Albion College, Michigan |
| Occupation(s) | Chairman & CEO, NYNEX Corporation |
| Spouse | Joyce Soby Ferguson (m. 1952) |
| Children | Laura Ferguson (b. 1955), Ellen Ferguson Keleman (b. 1958), Joanne Ferguson Gerrish (b. 1967) |
William C. Ferguson (died October 14, 2015) was a telecommunications executive who served as chairman and CEO of NYNEX.[1]
William "Bill" Ferguson was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1930 to William and Betty Ferguson. His parents, a Scottish immigrant and a Missouri farm girl, moved the family to Akron, Ohio, where Ferguson spent much of his early childhood. Ten years later, the family moved to Trenton, Michigan. At age 14, Ferguson met Joyce Soby, his future wife and close partner in his philanthropic work, on a school hayride. At Trenton High School, Ferguson played basketball, football, and baseball and graduated in 1948, becoming the first member of his family to receive more than a ninth-grade education.
In order to fund his college tuition, Ferguson held several jobs throughout high school and college summers: loading rims in box cars at Firestone, working on a labor gang at Penn Salt in Wyandotte, Michigan, and caddying at Grosse Ile Golf and Country Club.
June of ’52 was a busy one: graduating college, marrying his high-school sweetheart and joining Michigan Bell as a management trainee, only to be drafted into the U.S. Army in September 1952. Stationed in Fort Monmouth, NJ, as a Corporal teaching electronics at the Signal Corps School, Bill returned to Michigan Bell in Detroit in 1954 to continue his career.
An avid three-handicap golfer, Bill was a member of the Grosse Ile Golf and Country Club in Michigan, Winged Foot Golf Club in New York, Jupiter Hills Country Club in Florida and several clubs in Hilton Head, SC.
Faith also played a role in Bill's life, calling the United Methodist Churches of Trenton, MI, and Armonk, NY, his sanctuaries.[2]
Education
Ferguson graduated from Albion College in 1952 with a B.A. in Liberal Arts, majoring in mathematics with physics and economics minors, and also earning a Secondary Teaching Certificate. He later received honorary doctorates from Albion, New York Institute of Technology and Pace University. As an Albion student, Bill was a four-year participant in baseball and member of the 1950 MIAA Championship Baseball Team. In 1997 he was inducted into the Albion College sports Hall of Fame,[3] and served as the master of ceremonies of the Albion Hall of Fame dinner from 1989 to 1994. Bill was also a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.