William B. Coe Jr. Service Information

William B. Coe Jr

William B. Coe Jr., born June 17, 1922 to William B. Coe Sr and Edna Mae Hadfield in Philadelphia. He had a younger brother John “Jack” Raymond Coe. 

Bill attended Taylor Elementary School and Northeast High School. After high school, Bill worked for North Brothers Manufacturing as an assembler, and then moved to Proctor Electric manufacturing electric toasters. With the help of his uncle Jack, he was hired as an errand boy for the Williams and Markus Printing Company.

Always a lover of cars, his first car was a 1929 Essex that he purchased at 16 years of age. The next car was a 1934 Terraplane and over the years owned many other cars.  During this time, he met Mary Ellen Strilcich who would later become his wife.

On January 23, 1943, he was inducted into the United States Army 47 days after the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. Sadly, on November 6, 1943 his mother passed away after a long battle with cancer. He served in the Pacific theater during the course of WWII as truck/ambulance driver working with the medics. His last place of duty was in Japan after the Japanese surrender He was discharged on February 21, 1946 attaining the rank of corporal and received the Good Conduct medal, the Philippine Liberation medal, the American Theater Service medal, the Asian – Pacific Theater service medal and the Victory medal. 

Upon his return to the states, he began working at his father’s printing business, William B. Coe and Sons located at 3404 N. 5th Street in Philadelphia along with his brother Jack. On July 12, 1946, he married Mary Ellen Strilcich and was married almost 75 years.  They had two sons William on May 3, 1948 and Timothy on November 9 1954. Bill was truly proud of his craft as a printer and took pride in his work. Due to a downturn in the economy around 1952, he worked as a cab driver for the Yellow Cab Company in Philadelphia. He felt as the older son he should be the one to temporarily reduce his hours and salary so that his father and brother would make more money.

Bill had many varied interests and hobbies. He loved photography something he was attracted to as a child. In fact as a young boy, he developed his own film and built a small processing lab in his parents’ basement. During the early 1960’s he was a Cub Master at St. Timothy’s Roman Catholic Church. His other interests were model trains, gardening, oil painting and travel. He always had some sort of vegetable or flower garden at the family home at 2716 Stevens St Philadelphia. He and Mary enjoyed traveling mainly to Ashland Kentucky to visit Mary’s sister Mildred and family along with other road trips to Niagara Falls and other destinations on the eastern seaboard. In their later years they travelled to Las Vegas and to the Atlantic City casinos.

He is survived by his son, Timothy W. Coe, Sr. and his wife Carol of Warrington and his four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren

His family will receive relatives and friends on Wednesday, November 16, 2022 from 9:30AM until his Funeral Service 10:30AM in the Joseph A. Fluehr III Funeral Home, 800 Newtown Richboro Rd. (at Holland Rd.) Richboro. His interment with Military Honors will follow at the Washington Crossing National Cemetery, Newtown.

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