William Charles Farrell, Jr., 87, died Sept. 4, 2012, at his Annapolis home after a long illness.

Born Jan. 16, 1925, in Baltimore, he was the son of William C. and Doris Hartwell Farrell. After graduating from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, he entered Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering until the outbreak of World War II.

Enlisting in the U.S. Army, he was assigned to the Signal Corps and attached to Squire Laboratories. During his three years of active service, he completed tours of duty in Europe and Japan and was able to continue his engineering studies at the University of Michigan and the University of Nebraska.

At the end of the war, he returned to Baltimore where he married the former Ann Kaufman on Sept. 13, 1947, and earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1948. He continued his military service in the Army Reserve until 1956.

He joined the engineering department of C&P Telephone Company of Maryland in 1948. He held various positions with C&P and AT&T in Maryland, New York City and Washington, D.C., before retiring as division manager of transmission engineering in 1984.

A member of the international board of directors of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), he served as director of IEEE Region 2 from 1979-80 and chaired a number of the institute's committees. He served as president of the Engineering Society of Baltimore from 1983-84 and was a member of its board of directors for many years. He also served as chair of the Baltimore Chapter of Communications Technology and was active in the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. A longtime member of Calvary United Methodist Church in Annapolis, he chaired the building committee when the church moved from State Circle to its present location on Rowe Boulevard in 1974 and played an active role in teaching various youth and adult Bible study classes. He enjoyed playing golf, sailing and travel, and was an avid reader.

Prior to retirement, he and his wife lived in Arnold before moving to Boca Raton, Fla. In 2001, they returned to Annapolis. In addition to his wife, Ann, he is survived by his daughter, Phyllis Ann, and son, William Mark (Jane) Farrell.

A service celebrating his life will be held Sept. 14, 2012, at 1 p.m., at Calvary United Methodist Church, 301 Rowe Blvd., Annapolis. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Calvary United Methodist Church.