Gregory R. Billings

Gregory worked as a­­n elevator mechanic for 53 years. He truly believed it to be his calling.  He loved his union brothers and sisters and found great joy in teaching upcoming mechanics the trade.  He always looked forward to work and even laughed about the routine Saturday night calls to the University of Maryland to assist with broken elevators by college kids (only when relating the tale to others.  You should have heard him when he was awakened at 3:00 am.) 

His passions were gambling, woodworking, scuba diving, family vacations across the country, boating, camping, and enjoying sporting events played by his grandchildren.

His favorite yearly tradition was spending the July 4^th holiday in Daytona with his son and two grandsons who reside in St Augustine, Florida.  Each year he travelled to Daytona and endured rain delay after rain delay to watch the summer races. See, in Daytona the summer races are held in the rainy season and each year the races would be delayed from 1-6 hours due to rain. On some occasions the races would be held the next day. His seats where at the start finish line and you could practically reach out and touch the flag stand. Each year he brought different family members and close friends. Everyone who went to the races with him always commented what a great time they had travelling with Greg to the races.

Greg was tech savvy, always wanting the latest and greatest electronics on the market. (4 cell phones, 4 TVs, home network, multiple printers, indoor and outdoor cameras, apps on his phone that could open and close the garage doors – need we say more?) One time he and Dedra were vacationing in Bermuda when Rob called in a panic. They were watching TV at the house when Hannah (then 2) began playing with the buttons on the fancy-dancy universal remote.  From a thousand miles (!) away Greg was able to tell him how to fix it so it would work again.  Dedra always told him he absolutely could not die first, because she absolutely could not work all the electronics he set up.

He never wanted to move to the country, but Dedra was able to lure him with the promise of his own standalone workshop. The square footage of the building almost equaled that of the house (and more than once people asked which house he and Dedra lived in).  But it made him happy, so who could argue the results?  In addition to his tools, it garaged his beloved tractor, which gave him more pleasure than you could imagine.  No matter the task, he would insist on bringing it out to help.

He practically rebuilt the house in the country (good thing he had all those tools in his workshop). He replaced every window in the house. He took off the interior drywall, added additional insulation, put back on new drywall, taped, spackled and painted.  He removed the old siding on the house, Tyvek wrapped it and put in new fancy, custom siding (because Dedra asked him to).   He remodeled 2 bathrooms, put down a heated wood floor in the living room, rebuilt the deck and installed a tankless water heater. (BTW, this is not even a complete list).

He knew so much – he often said, “what another man can do, I can fix.” When anyone of us asked his advice about how to repair something that had broken, the first words out of his mouth were something like, “I’m on my way over. It’s easier for me to do it than to tell you how.”  We could never stump him.

He built swings for the grandchildren, snow forts, let them help when he had a construction project (usually hammering nails in spare pieces of board), helped them put in “gardens,” and generally adhered to the motto “Whatever you want!”  To say he adored them was an understatement.

On three separate occasions, Greg was able to go to sea with his son onboard three different aircraft carriers: the USS Abraham Lincoln, USS George Washington, and the USS America. The Tiger Cruises made a huge impression on him and he always remembered those trips as if they happened last week. Even after 20 years, he could tell you in detail how the aircraft carrier operated. On one of the tiger cruises, he tried to get the cooks to cater to him. Each time he went to dinner he would try to get the Navy cooks to serve him a rare steak. See, rare steaks were his favorite way of eating a steak. When he asked for a rare steak, the Navy cooks looked at him and said the he couldn’t serve him a rare steak because they only cook steaks well done around here. He took his plate and enjoyed one of the few well done steaks he ever ate in his lifetime. While at Sea, Greg made a lasting impression on the sailors in his son’s squadron’s. He would spend hours on end in the squadron’s ready room talking about all things Navy and his son. Even in his illness he was proud of his son serving in the US Navy and frequently talked about the tiger cruises with his son to helpers, apprentices, and pretty much anyone who would listen.

In his life, he endured many life-threatening illnesses and injuries, but he was ALWAYS certain he would overcome.  His last illness was no exception.  His response was “I am going to beat this.  I lived a full life.”  He was always so optimistic and full of life.  He will be missed by all those he touched and those who touched him.