Dr. William J. (Bill) Taylor

Dr. William J. (Bill) Taylor, 84, of Fredericksburg, died Friday, Feb. 7, 2014.

A memorial service was held Saturday, Feb. 15, at 1 p.m. at First Baptist Church with the Rev. D.G. McCoury officiating. Also participating in the service was Donald Taylor, mayor of the Shetland Islands.

Arrangements and cremation were under the direction of Fredericksburg Funeral Home.

Taylor was born Oct. 29, 1929, in Dundee, Scotland, the son of William Craigie Taylor and Catherine Clark Taylor. He married Margaret Anne McKiein in 1951 in Dundee, Scotland, and she survives.

A graduate of New Zealand Baptist Theological Seminary, Taylor also earned degrees from Luther Rice Seminary in Jacksonville, Fla., and Trinity Theological Seminary in Newburg, Ind.

After pastoring churches in New Zealand from 1956-1972, Taylor relocated to Texas and pastored churches in Monahans, Beaumont and Dayton.

After retiring in Dayton, the Taylors moved to Scotland for three years where he pastored a small church in Grantown-on-Spey.

They eventually moved to Fredericksburg and he later served as interim pastor at various churches in Texas, Colorado and England.

In addition to his wife, Taylor is survived by two sons, one daughter and spouses, including Donald and Marianne Taylor, of Kilgore; Ken and Patricia Taylor, Willis, and Ruth and Craig Branham, Kountze.

He is also survived by nine grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren, and a sister and brother-in-law, Catherine and Alan Lean of Brisbane, Australia.

Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, Hill Country Memorial Hospice or to the charity of choice.