William Kette Dornbusch Jr.

Published 6:35 pm Wednesday, July 17, 2019

William Kette Dornbusch Jr. died July 15, 2019, at the Blake in Oxford.

A memorial service will be Saturday, July 20, 2019, at 11 a.m. at Riles Funeral Home in Vicksburg with the Rev. Eugene Bramlett officiating. Visitation will precede the service at 10 a.m. A graveside service will follow at Cedar Hill Cemetery.

William was born in Vicksburg on July 14, 1928, and spent most of his life there. After graduating from Carr Central High School, he enlisted in the United States Army and was assigned duties in the Army Security Division in the Pacific Theater in Tokyo, Japan in 1947. He later attended Reserve Officer Training School at Ft. Bliss, Texas. He was honorably discharged from the Army Reserve in 1954.

He was a 1951 graduate of Mississippi State University with a degree in petroleum geology. His first jobs were as an exploration petroleum geologist along the Gulf Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.

William Kette Dornbusch

In 1956, he was employed by the Corps of Engineers as a research geologist at Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg. He remained there until his retirement in 1984.

His work with the Corps of Engineers included extensive travel in the United States and prolonged periods of travel overseas, including to Vietnam, Thailand and Germany. He authored numerous reports in diverse fields of geology. Following his retirement in 1984 he continued his interest in geology as a consultant in numerous projects of geologic interest, both in the United States and overseas.

He was a member of the VFW, the Geological Society of America, the American Institute of Professional Geologists, and the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. He was a registered geologist in the state of Delaware.

He was preceded in death by his parents, William Kette Dornbusch Sr. and Mary Alice Kirk Dornbusch; his beloved wife, Marilyn Blades Dornbusch; his daughter, Rebecca Dornbusch Shaw; his infant son, James Harris Dornbusch; his sister, Mary Cecile Dornbusch King; his brother-in-law, Travis Menton King; his nephew, William Travis King; and his grandparents, Martha McGraw and William Rienza Kirk; and Katherine Biedenharn and Jacob Dornbusch.

He is survived by his grandsons, Jack William Leist (Jackie) of Vicksburg and Cullen Patrick Leist of Winter Park, Florida; his great-grandchildren, William Maddox Leist, Oakley Connor May-Sauntry and Violet Eliza Leist; his nephew, Allan Reed King (Nancy) of Oxford, Mississippi; and three nieces, Katherine Cecile King and Margaret Elizabeth King, both of Oxford, and Carolyn Kirk King Bramlett (Eugene) of Columbus.

Memorial contributions in Mr. Dornbusch’s memory may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association (Mississippi Chapter), 207 West Jackson Street, Ridgeland, MS 39157.