William George (Bill) Barks, 83, died October 21, 2020. In 1952 his family moved to Wiesbaden, Germany after his father accepted an appointment with the United States Government. After high school graduation he spent one year at the University of Heidelberg. He finished his education at ASU in 1963 with majors in Industrial Engineering & Management.



Mr. Barks began his professional career in 1959 at Motorola as a Management Trainee while attending ASU, and ending in 1966 as Production Control Mgr for D&R. While at Motorola he helped manufacture and test components for the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Saturn projects. In 1967 he started with Dickson Electronics as Production Control Manager, later was promoted to Production Manager then to Assistant General manager for Production Services. In 1971 he started with Phoenix Coca Cola as Production Manager, was promoted to Plant Superintendent where he was appointed to the World Wide Coca Cola Production Advisory Council. In 1973 he was promoted to Director of Sales. In 1973 he started at Omega Industries as Vice President of Sales then was promoted to President and COO in 1975. Omega Industries was taken over in 1980 and he retired, and then spent four years in Telluride, CO as a local business owner. He re-entered the electronics business world in 1985 as the co-founder of ICS, an electronics Manufacturer Rep business in Lilburn, GA. In 1992 he founded SEF in Norcross, GA which succeeded ICS and served as its President. In 2006 CMI & Associates sold their part of the Electronics Mfg. Rep business to Southeastern Technical Sales which merged with SEF where he was co-founder, principal partner and later its President. STS became the largest board level Rep Company in the Southeast. Mr. Barks retired with 50 years in the business world in February 2010.

Mr. Barks has been very active in civic organizations both in Arizona and Georgia. In Arizona he was appointed by the Mayor of Tempe to be President of the Tempe Municipal Buildings Corporation in 1966 and served until 1980; was elected President of the Tempe Jaycees in 1967; was Vice President of the Arizona Jaycees in 1968; was President of the Phoenix East Valley Boys and Girls Club in 1971; served as an officer and was elected President of the Tempe Diablos, which helped start the Fiesta Bowl, in 1977. He was elected President of ASU Georgia Alumni Association for four years. He was honored by the Tempe, AZ Jaycees to be Jaycee of the year in 1967, and by the Junior Chamber International to be a Jr. Chamber International Senator in 1968, and by the Tempe Diablos to be a Life Member in 1978.



Mr. Barks is survived by his wife, Julia, four children, 11 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren and two siblings. A memorial mass will be held Saturday, November 21, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Barnabas Anglican Church, Dunwoody, GA. He will be placed in the Columbarium at the church following the service. (Source: Arizona Republic)