William Margulies

Born in Raleigh, NC on July 19, 1933 Departed on December 3, 2017 and resided in Hendersonville, TN Life Celebration Service: Our Lady of The Lake Catholic ChurchWednesday December 6, 2017 3:00pm to 4:00pmVisitation: Our Lady of The Lake Catholic ChurchWednesday December 6, 2017 2:00pm to 3:00pmVisitation: Hendersonville Funeral Home Room: StateroomTuesday December 5, 2017 4:00pm to 7:00pm

HENDERSONVILLE, TN -- If you ever met Bill Margulies, you made a friend, because the man never met a stranger.

Bill, 84, the retired Chief of the Taxpayer Service Division of Tennessee for the Internal Revenue Service and a former U.S. Navy submariner, died Sunday, Dec. 3, 2017, at TriStar Hendersonville Medical Center of complications from leukemia.

Since retiring from a 30+ year career with the IRS in 1992, Bill had been an avid volunteer and Sunday school teacher at Hendersonville's Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church, where the smallest congregants knew that Mr. Bill always had pockets stuffed with lollipops waiting to be given away.

He and his wife, Mickey, who survives him, were also certified as Master Gardeners through the Tennessee Extension Master Gardeners Program, and their Hendersonville yard so often overflowed with amazing flora that strangers would sometimes stop by and ask for a tour.

William Paul Margulies was born July 19, 1933, in Raleigh, N.C., and graduated from Cathedral Latin High School. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1952.

As a sailor, he was an electrician's mate and rose to the rank of petty officer third class on the USS Carbonero.

After leaving the Navy in 1954, he entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on the GI Bill and graduated in 1957 with a bachelor's degree in political science.

He served as a social worker for the state of North Carolina for a couple of years and then took a position that would take him and his family all over the South as he rose through the ranks of the IRS.

The young family -- Bill and Mickey, but eventually children Jan, Karen, Ellen and Paul -- relocated from Charlotte, then Raleigh, then to Greenville, N.C.; Wilmington, N.C.; Columbus, Ga.; and then finally settled in the growing suburb of Hendersonville, Tenn., where they put down roots.

After his career of travel, Bill wanted nothing more in retirement than to stay at home and enjoy the company of family and friends and to be of service to his church and his community. Even so, he traveled to Europe more than once to visit his son's family as they traveled the world for the State Department. He loved to read and was an encyclopedia of World History and seemingly knew something on every subject. Long before Google and the Internet, whenever his children wanted to know something, he urged them: "Look it up."

World War II was the seminal event of his life, though he was just a boy, and there was no conversation that he couldn't steer toward WWII, much to the consternation and amusement of his family. He was a man of faith and intellect who was always philosophical about death, and never afraid.
He is survived by his wife, Mickey; his children, Jan; of Hendersonville; Karen and Ellen, both of Nashville; Paul (Cyd) Margulies, of Houston, TX; and his grandchildren, Kaiti (Josh) Lober, of Lebanon; Nola and William, both of Houston; his nephew, Russ, of New York; and hosts of friends near and far.

Visitation will be 4-7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5, at Hendersonville Funeral Home. Services will be at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 6, at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Hendersonville. Visitation from 2-3 p.m. on Wednesday also. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Leukemia Research Foundation in his memory.