William V. Myers, AT&T staff manager

William V. Myers, 86, of North Cape May, a former AT&T staff manager who was an active member of his church congregation, died of Parkinson's disease on Tuesday, Aug. 30, at his home.

At St. John Neumann parish in North Cape May, Mr. Myers served Communion at Sunday Masses and worked as an altar server at weekday funerals there.

He had organized a group of six men who took turns each day of the week, as altar boys and girls do at Sunday Masses, his wife, Eleanor, said.

Mr. Myers helped organize the parish's Holy Name Society, she said, and from 2005 to 2010 he was a member of the parish's financial committee.

From 1991 to 2005, for the weekly Friday night Bingo event, she and her husband once a month helped run the kitchen.

Besides those works, he was a member of the Stella Maris Council 3546 of the Knights of Columbus.

His strong Catholic faith, his wife said, "started at home with his mom and dad. He loved his church and he loved his God."

She noted that his mother, Anna, "died of cancer and that affected him a lot." He was 27 when it happened, she said, and so through good works "he was always going to be a better person in memory of her."

Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Myers grew up in Germantown, graduated from North Catholic High School in 1948, and served a four-year tour as an Air Force radar operator, for three years at bases in England.

The Air Force training, his wife said, was "how he got his job at AT&T."

In December 1954, Mr. Myers began his career as a long-distance lineman in Philadelphia. He retired as a staff manager in Bedminster in 1986.

The Myerses spent 12 of those years in Prince William County, Va., while he was an AT&T traffic engineer in Washington, before he was assigned in 1977 to the firm's office in Basking Ridge.

While working in Washington, his wife said, he was a Little League manager for baseball and football teams in Virginia.

After he retired from AT&T, Mr. Myers earned a real estate license and worked as an agent in Clinton, N.J., until retiring for good in 1990.

John Hasson met Mr. Myers when they both worked for AT&T in Center City in the 1980s. Though Hasson continued to work in the Philadelphia region, they kept in contact.

"He was a wonderful guy, an excellent family man," Hasson said during a visit to his friend's home.

Besides his wife of 61 years, Mr. Myers is survived by sons William, Thomas, Michael, and Bob, daughters Patricia Ann and Mary Ellen Platt, a sister, 14 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

A visitation was set from 10 to 10:50 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 3, at St. John of God Church, 680 Townbank Rd., North Cape May, before an 11 a.m. Funeral Mass there, with burial in Cold Spring Cemetery in Lower Township.

Donations may be sent to www.holyredeemer.com/main/donatenow.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.spilkerfuneralhome.

wnaedele@phillynews.com

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