William J. "Bill" Hudson

William J. (Bill) Hudson was born in Kansas City, MO, on December 8, 1938. Bill was the only child of Arvia E. Hudson II of Kansas City and Maribel W. (King) Hudson of Raytown. Bill’s father was an aircraft company executive, and the family moved several times after WWII — including to Hartford, Dallas, and Wichita, and again to Warsaw, Indiana when Bill was a senior at Wichita North.

After high school, Bill returned to the University of Kansas to be with his Wichita friends. He graduated from KU in 1960 with a triple major in math, English, and history, and again in 1961 with an MA in English. Bill married Jean M. Walters of Lincoln, KS, in 1961, and the couple had two girls, Marianne Hudson (of Prairie Village) and Liza Jane (Brad Carver) Carver (of Lenexa). Bill has two grandsons, Steve Carver (wife Devin, of Olathe) and Johnny Carver (wife Alexis, of Boca Raton, FL), and two great granddaughters, Raelyn Carver and Kamdyn Carver. 

Bill’s first job in 1961 after KU was with the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, where he became Head of the AEC’s first Office of Industrial Cooperation in 1964. Ten years later, Bill switched careers from advanced technology to the grain business, when he worked for a grain-trading company in Toledo, OH, becoming Senior Vice President of Research. 

Bill published a number of books, including Vision 2020: World Food Abundance and the Natural Advantage of America, Business Without Economists, and Intellectual Capital.

In 1988, Bill started his own company, The ProExporter Network (PRX), serving the US grain industry with a satellite-based GIS system that Bill developed with NASA. The software was used to locate most of the country’s ethanol plants.

Bill’s business career required extensive flying, but there was a problem — Bill was 6 foot 10 inches tall, and had constant problems with airplane seats. Except once! On a flight from Washington to Ohio, Bill found himself in the middle bulkhead seat, next to a tall woman his age, then employed by the US Foreign Service. When Bill asked her how tall she was, she answered, “Four foot, twenty-three and three-quarters inches.” Their sense of humor, and everything else, matched perfectly, and Betty L. Kane (Cleveland) and Bill were married on November 27, 1975. 

Betty became a devoted step-mother to Bill’s two daughters, then in high school in Toledo, and Betty later plunged into the new PRX business, taking over the accounting and all other administrative affairs. Bill and Betty moved from Toledo to Olathe in 1995, to be near to their daughters and grand kids, and have been married for 49 years.

Bill and Betty loved dogs, and during their marriage had a total of nine wonderful pals (8 pure-bred Collies and 1 Samoyed — Barnaby, Bailey, Baxter, Benjamin, Barnum, Boston, Burberry, Baylor, and Bentley). 

Bill was a dedicated Christian, and loved reading serious theological books. Bill and Betty attended Colonial Presbyterian Church. Bill was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, beginning in 1974 (over 50 years), making meetings in nearly every State of the US, Canada, and several countries in Europe. 

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Colonial Presbyterian Church, 12501 W. 137th Street, Overland Park, Kansas 66221.

• God and Dog 
• (Lyrics by Wendy Francisco)
• I look up and I see God 
• I look down and see my dog
• Simple spelling G-O-D
• Same word backward D-O-G
• They would stay with me all day
• I'm the one who walks away
• But both of them just wait for me
• And dance at my return with glee
• They love me no matter what
• Divine God and canine mutt
• I take it hard each time I fail
• But God forgives, dog wags his tail
• God thought up and made the dog
• Dog reflects a part of God
• And in my human frailty
• I can't match their love for me
• I look up and I see God
• I look down and see my dog
• I've seen love from both sides now
• It's everywhere, Amen, bow wow