LYNCHBURG — William Allen Cobb, 92, died on Oct. 19, 2018.

He was born on April 13, 1926, in Franklin, Virginia, to William Emmett Cobb and Ada Cobb (née Gardner). He was a 10th generation descendant of Joseph Cobb of Oxford, England, who emigrated to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1613. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by an older brother, Roger Wilson Cobb, who died as a teenager.

Mr. Cobb was educated in the Franklin public schools, and was a mechanical engineering graduate of Virginia Tech (class of 1949).

He spent his working life employed by Babcock & Wilcox, first in Barberton and Akron, Ohio, and then a 32-year stretch at the Old Forest Road Lynchburg office in various engineering and project management positions.

He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in December 1943 and entered active duty service on his 18th birthday. He attended electronic school and flight gunnery school and trained with a B-29 bomber crew for deployment to Saipan (Mariana Islands), but was deflected by an instructor assignment and spent the remainder of the war training other crews.

Mr. Cobb was discharged from the Army in 1946. Almost immediately he married Jean Claire Wood, 18, of Pueblo, Colorado, whom he had met and been smitten by during Army service. They were married for 55 very happy years before her much too early death in 2001.

He and Jean had a large family by modern standards, including four daughters: Carolyn Cobb of Silver Spring, Maryland; Sara Cobb Sluzki of Washington, D.C.; Joan Cobb Rogers of Charlottesville, Virginia; and Mary Cobb Sullivan of Miami, Florida, who provided him with 13 grandchildren (seven boys and six girls) and 12 great-grandchildren (eight boys and four girls), and happily all surviving in good health.

At his request, there was no public service.

Tharp Funeral Home & Crematory, Lynchburg, assisted the family.

To send condolences, please visit tharpfuneralhome.com.