Bill McElhaney

Services for Wise County Judge Bill McElhaney, 67, of Bridgeport will be Thursday, October 17, 2013 at 10:30 am at the Decatur Civic Center in Decatur. Burial will be private. Pallbearers will be Wise County Sheriff's Honor Guard. McElhaney died Monday, October 14 after collapsing during a commissioners court meeting in Decatur. Bill, a lifelong resident of Bridgeport, was serving his second term as county judge, and was active in several regional boards and associations. Billy McElhaney was born in Decatur June 17, 1946 to Joseph and Atrel (Hunn) McElhaney. Mr. McElhaney was a 1964 graduate of Bridgeport High School and served in the U.S. Army from 1965-1967. He was a 1977 graduate of the University of North Texas, where he earned a bachelor's degree in finance, with a minor in real estate, and additional post graduate courses. From 1985-2006 he had over 200 accredited classroom hours from the Texas Education Agency and Texas Association of School Boards. From 1970-2006 he took many various industry management and safety courses and classes with industry, community and government themes to include local, state and federal levels. In the past six years Bill took over 100 hours of Judicial Educational courses for County Judges from the Texas Association of Counties (TAC), over 50 hours of advanced continuing education from the V.G. Young Institute of County Government (affiliate of Texas A&M), various courses of National Incident Management System (NIMS) emergency management training, and other various county government training courses from TAC. For 39 years, from 1968-2006, Bill worked at TXI Operations, LP in Chico. From 1969-1977 he worked in various supervisory and management positions at two of their stone plants. From 1978-1996 he was the manager of the Bridgeport Stone facility. From 1982-1996 he was the Area Stone Manager of Wise and Jack County Production Operations. From 1997-2001 he was in Corporate Reserves and Aggregate Business Development for Texas and Oklahoma. And from 2001-2006 he was involved in the real estate division as Corporate Mineral Land Manager for Texas and Oklahoma. Mr. McElhaney was on the Bridgeport City Council from 1978-1980. He served various times on the Bridgeport school board, serving a total of 21 years. He served on the Wise County School District Board, and in 1994 was the County Board President. He was Chairman of the Bridgeport Economic Development Board in 1988-1989. He was currently vice president of the executive board of the North Central Texas Council of Governments. He gave over 26 years of total government/public service. He was a member in the Fellows of the Texas County Judges Judicial Academy. He was also a member of the V.G. Young Commissioners Court Academy, as well as an active member of Nor-Tex County Judges Association. Billy leaves behind his wife Kim (Smith) McElhaney; children Billy Jr., Blaine and wife Melissa, Stacie Anderson and husband Kyle, Katie Smith and husband Josh; sisters Nadine Green and husband Billy Carroll, and Rita Boles; and ten grandchildren: Christian McElhaney & Nicolas McElhaney - sons of Billy McElhaney Jr.; Beau McElhaney, Brody McElhaney, Trinity McElhaney, and Colton Teter - children of Blaine McElhaney and wife Melissa; Lane Anderson - son of Stacie Anderson and husband Kyle; Hendrix Smith, Harper Smith and Haddie Smith - children of Katie Smith and her husband Josh. He was preceded in death by his parents. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to any Wise County charity of choice.