Obituaries

-- Joe Holley

Edward G.U. 'Bill' BandEngineer, Naval Architect, Sailor

Bill Band, 82, an engineer and naval architect who did research for the government in the field of advanced marine vehicles, died of complications of a stroke June 4 at the Hospice of the Chesapeake in Harwood. He lived in Heritage Harbor in Annapolis.

With David Lavis, Mr. Band founded Band, Lavis & Associates in 1977 and began doing research that included surface effect ships, or twin-hulled watercraft that hover on a cushion of air. He retired as president in 1992.

Earlier, he worked with Booz Allen Applied Research Inc., Wyle Labs, Westinghouse Oceanic and Payne Inc., all in the Washington area.

Edward George Underwood Band was born in Brentford, England, and received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London.

In his youth he played cricket for his boys' school and for the Chilean National test team. He also competed in rugby.

He received a master's of science degree at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., in 1951.

He worked in Toronto before returning to England in 1952. He later worked at Martin Aircraft in Baltimore before moving in 1958 to Chile and teaching mechanical engineering at the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria in Valparaiso.

Mr. Band returned to the United States in 1964 and was a research professor at the Webb Institute, a college of naval architecture and marine engineering in Glen Cove, N.Y., before moving to the Washington area about a year later.

While living in Severna Park for 28 years until 2000, he skippered a sailboat that won many races, including the Great Ocean Race at least twice. He was one of the founders of the Round Bay Sailing Association, commodore of the Midget Ocean Racing Club and a past president of the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association.

He was a member of the Hovercraft Society, the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.