After years of battling heart disease, on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, William (Bill) James Lamont Jr., 78 of Petersburg, peacefully died at home surrounded by his family.
Born December 18, 1945, in Philadelphia, PA, he was the son of the late Jane Maurer Lamont and William James Lamont. On April 3, 1976, in Holtwood, PA, he married Phyllis Susan Shaub who survives at the home. Bill was a 1963 graduate of Abington Senior High School. He received two B.S. degrees, one from Lebanon Valley College (1967) in Business Administration and Economics and the other from Delaware Valley College (1975) in Horticulture. Also, he received an M.S. (1979), and a Ph.D. (1981) from the Department of Vegetable Crops at Cornell University.
Bill began his professional career in 1980 at North Carolina State University, then worked at Kansas State University, and then at Pennsylvania State University, retiring in 2017 as Professor Emeritus of Vegetable Crops in the Department of Plant Science. During his long and productive career in academia, he was a statewide extension vegetable specialist, teacher of both undergraduate and graduate level courses, applied researcher in the field of vegetable crops and plasticulture or the use of plastics in agriculture systems, and he worked in the international ag arena. Bill was a prolific writer of multiple academic publications and a wide variety of nationally syndicated magazines. His most recent column called “Cultivating Thoughts” appeared once a month in the Country Folks Grower Magazine since 2021, and his twice monthly gardening column “Over the Garden Fence” has been a staple in the Centre Daily Times weekend edition since he began penning it in 2005. One article, which he was extremely proud of, was published in the February 2012 issue of the Pennsylvania Game News. Titled “Remembering Uncle Mark’s Place,” Bill recognized and thanked the men of the World War II generation who gathered each fall around the kitchen table at Uncle Mark’s farm and imparted not only lessons on hunting but on life to a young boy growing into manhood.
Serving on active duty in the United States Navy between 1967-1971, Bill spent 25 months in Japan and left active duty as a Petty Officer Second Class. In 1975, he applied for and was accepted in a highly competitive special program for Naval Intelligence Officers in the Naval Reserves. Sworn in as an Ensign, Bill served 30 years, retiring with the rank of Commander in 2005.
In addition to his wife Phyllis, Bill is survived by their children William James Lamont III, his wife Jillian, granddaughter Baylee and grandson James, and Kevin Arthur Lamont, his wife Kelly and grandson Emmitt, and granddaughter Adalyn. He is also survived by his younger brother Richard Mauer Lamont and his family and many nieces and nephews.
A Celebration of Life service will be held at the Word of Life Fellowship Church just north of Huntingdon in the Spring 2025. The date and time will be posted in an update on the Koch Funeral Home website.
In lieu of flowers, donations are welcome to the Chapin Living Waters, 364 N Colorado Ave., Watertown, NY 13601 and at https://www.chapinlivingwaters.org/, or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105 and at https://www.stjude.org/donate/donate-to-st-jude.html. Please note “In Memory of Bill Lamont” on any memorial contribution.
Online condolences may be entered on the Koch Funeral Home website at www.kochfuneralhome.com.