Long-time Local 44 member Bill Myatt passed away September 12, 2008, from complications following abdominal surgery at Saint Joseph?s hospital in Burbank.  Billy was born on November 18, 1929 in a log house in rural Tennessee, the 5th of 12 children.  At age 20, he joined the US Navy and served on the destroyer USS Hamner during the Korean War as a gunner?s mate.  It was a good start for someone who would later make a living blowing things up.  While on leave from his home base of San Diego, he met Ruby Edwards on a blind date.  Their resulting marriage lasted 56 years.  
    Bill joined Local 44 when he started working in the movie industry in 1961 as a prop maker.  He soon specialized in miniatures then moved on to special effects, becoming a Special Effects Coordinator and then Special Effects Department Head at Sony Studios.  He worked on Lost in Space, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, Bewitched, 1941, Used Cars, Romancing the Stone, Florida Straits, Yellow Pages, MacGyver, MASH, Dallas, and Baywatch, to name just a few.  
    Bill greatly enjoyed working in the studios and all of the friendships that he made there.  He and prop maker Paul Skelton, Red?s brother, were fishing buddies and enjoyed many ocean fishing trips.  While shooting Used Cars in Arizona, stunt coordinator Terry Leonard told Bill that he was going to eat at Pinnacle Peak, a restaurant that would cut the tie off anyone who wore one in the door.  Bill rigged a tie for Terry with aircraft cable inside and laughed about it for years afterwards.  
    Bill?s grandchildren also enjoyed his movie career.  They liked cutting school to visit sets and meet stars, making them the envy of their classmates.  
    In his later years he enjoyed puttering around the property on his tractor, giving his family gray hairs as he gave his grandchildren rides on the tractor.  His technique of setting off explosions to blow holes in the hard ground for fence posts also caused them all great consternation.  
    He is survived by his wife Ruby, son-in-law and daughter Paul and Debbie Price, son-in-law and daughter Tim and Susan Woken and 8 grandchildren.  He was a loving husband, father and grandfather and will be missed greatly.
The Myatt Family