William Joseph Villanueva

William J. (Bill) Villanueva was born August 4, 1934 in Albuquerque, NM. He went to be with the Lord on June 21, 2026 (Father’s Day) in Albuquerque, NM. He is survived by Myrtle, his wife of 69 years, and his four beloved children: Eric and wife Teresa, Louise and husband Michael McDade, Stephen, and Tim and wife Carmen. The delight of his life were his 12 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.

Bill loved music and was forever singing and whistling. In his later years, he would often serenade the staff and residents at Carefree Living, winning smiles and getting people to sing along. Throughout his life, he was curious and lively, easily making friends. Running errands with Bill always took forever because he would happily stop to exchange life stories with everyone he met. Bill also had a notoriously playful sense of humor and confused many a server by ordering “diet water” or a “cheeseburger, hold the cheese.”

As a young man, he attended St. Mary’s High School, where he spent a many hours in the tennis courts; in his senior year, Bill made runner-up in the State Tennis Tournament. After graduation, he joined the U.S. Navy, where he honorably served as a medic on the USS Princeton during the Korean War. When he returned to the U.S., Bill worked at Sandia National Laboratories in the plastics division before leaving to found his own successful company, Bill Vill’s Deep Steam Carpet Cleaning, which he used to teach his children the importance of working for a living. He later purchased and ran the Car Wash Service Center, where he would happily babysit and spoil his grandchildren, taking them on mini adventures for donuts and other treats. After Bill and Myrtle retired to Moriarty, NM, Bill never stopped finding new things to do or new ways to contribute. When he wasn’t baking bread for the neighbors, waging war with the mulberry tree that wouldn’t die, or adding new features to the backyard, he honed his woodworking skills and built a whole series of custom bookcases for his children and grandchildren.

The best years of his life came after he established a relationship with Jesus Christ. He was an active member of the church and often volunteered for Hospital Visitations and other services where he could sing a song, share a kind word, or just be present to hear someone else’s story.

In the course of his long life, he made many mistakes, but also never gave up on the process of becoming a better man. He had a gift for seeing beauty in everyone he met and adding to the beauty of the world with a joke, a song, a hug, or a smile.

We will greatly miss him.