William DeFord "Bill" Cosden Jr., founder of a water conditioning firm who served in the Navy during World War II, died Thursday at Longview Nursing Home in Manchester of respiratory failure. He was 85.
The son of William DeFord Cosden Sr., a farmer, and Dorothy Virginia Yewell Cosden, a homemaker, William DeFord Cosden Jr. was born in Easton and raised in St. Michaels, where he graduated from public schools.
During World War II, he served four years aboard the aircraft carrier USS Midway, where he was a sheet metal mechanic.
After the war, he worked in water conditioning with his grandfather's firm before he established Cosden Water Supply Co. Inc. in 1960. He was semi-retired from the business, which is still family-owned and -operated.
For more than 40 years, Mr. Cosden was an active member of the Maryland Delaware Water Well Association.
In 1958, the former longtime Pikesville resident joined the Pikesville Volunteer Fire Co., where he served as a member of the ambulance crew and assisted at the fire company's bingo events.
Mr. Cosden and his family moved to Randallstown in the late 1960s. He was an active member for many years of the Pikesville Randallstown Lions Club, which he had served as president. He also received the organization's Melvin Jones Award.
He was a member of Reisterstown Moose Lodge 1577, American Lodge Post 122 in Owings Mills and Milford Mill United Methodist Church.
Mr. Cosden enjoyed camping, crabbing and fishing.
Funeral services will be held at noon Wednesday at the Jones-Ash Funeral Home, 3735 Ridge Road, Heathsville, Va.
His wife of 56 years, the former Joanne Hundley Rowe, died in 2008.
Mr. Cosden is survived by a son, William DeFord Cosden III of Westminster; a daughter, Karen Meyers of Randallstown; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.