Retired Naval Commander William John Drewes passed away peacefully on March 1, 2020.  He was born in 1926 in Washington, PA to William and Selma Drewes, Sr. and moved to southern California when he was a young boy.  Just before Bill graduated from high school, he received a letter from the Navy asking if he would like to enlist in the Navy and become a Naval Aviator, provided he met certain qualifications.  He met the qualifications and entered the Navy when he was 17 and was sent to Minot North Dakota for College for 4 months.

Bill was then sent to Texas to learn to fly.  After only 8 hours of training, he was requested to fly solo.  He claimed he would never forget that day.  It was custom for other cadets to cut your black tie to indicate you had soloed.  He kept that tie until he died.

After advanced training, he received his wings of gold as a Naval Aviator and then was commissioned on the USS Hancock.  While on the carrier, a Kamikaze plane hit the forward deck and slid across the flight deck destroying most of the planes and did considerable damage to the carrier.

When Bill was sent to Patuxent River in the Washington, DC area, he met the love of his life Bebe (Genevieve Roche). They married and moved to California where he earned a degree in Meteorology.  He got a job with NOAA (US Weather Service) in Maryland and stayed with the Weather Service over 35 years.  He finally wound up living in Upstate New York.  When he retied from the Weather Service in 1984, they moved to the Daytona Beach area.

Bill stayed in the Naval reserves until he retired on his birthday in 1986.  He always loved weather and kept diaries of weather occurrences even as a small child.  After retiring, he monitored the weather constantly and was one of Dave's Weather Watchers for WESH TV.  Last year when Hurricane Dorian was threatening the east coast of Florida, Bill predicted that it would stay off the coast of Florida.  When his son, Keith forwarded Bill's E-mail about Dorian staying away, to Amy Sweezey at WESH, She replied to Keith, that "Old School" still works!

Bill is predeceased by Bebe, his older sister Sally, and his second love Katherine Michael.  He leaves behind his 4 children: Donald of Sykesville, MD, Linda Earnest (Kevin) of Port Orange, FL, Paul (Lynn) of Myrtle Beach, and Keith (Peg) of Port Orange, FL.  He also leaves behind 5 grandchildren:  Adam, Kyle, Chelsea, Tracy and Vincent.

A wake will be held at Lohman Funeral Home in Port Orange from 1:00 to 4:00 PM on Saturday, March 7, 2020.  A Funeral Mass is scheduled at the Epiphany Catholic Church in Port Orange at 10:00 AM Tuesday, March 10, 2020.  Military Honors will be held at Cape Canaveral National Cemetery on US Highway 1 in Mims, FL. at 2:00 PM.

In Lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to Hospice of Port Orange.