William Russell Roberts

(1923 - 2003)

Born: Gaithersburg, Maryland

Died: Gaithersburg, Maryland, Feb 3, 2003, at age 80.

William Russell designed, built and maintained golf courses on the Eastern Seaboard, all within several hundred miles of his Maryland home.

Mr. Roberts was born and raised on a farm in Gaithersburg, and it was there that he operated his business, Russell Roberts Co. Inc. Two of the last golf courses he designed were the Hidden Valley Resort in Pennsylvania and the Bay Club in Ocean City. Not only did Mr. Roberts design the golf courses, he often participated in the construction, operating a backhoe and doing the clearing, scooping and filling work himself.

He served in the Navy during World War II, attending an engineering school in Norfolk and later learning to fly Navy aircraft. After the war, he flew private airplanes in the course of his business, and often landed Cessna aircraft on golf courses.

After the war, he worked with Frank Murray building courses for golf architect Frank Tull. Between 1955 and 1959 the pair, Murray and Roberts, designed and built courses on their own. Murray moved his operations to Florida and Roberts continued designing and building courses in a several hundred mile radius of his home.