William Branton Robertson
was born the 2nd of December 1936 in Georgia.
He grew up mostly in
New Orleans where he also went to college. He became an engineer
and worked as such for a number of years.
Bill became involved
in Scientology in the beginning of the 60s. That is also when his
interest in global affairs started to take form. He had been working
as an engineer on the construction of Minuteman missile sites and
other secret government projects, but started now to realize that
this was'nt any way of dealing with the problems of the world.
On the first given chance
Bill got a berth on a freighter sailing for England to join the
mainstream of Scientology at the time. He arrived at Saint Hill
in 65 and enrolled as a student in the Briefing Course. He was very
excited about the whole thing and devoted all his energy to the
subject from day one.
The first time Bill met
Hubbard was shortly after arriving at St.Hill. He and a few other
students had sneaked into the chapel to have an impromptu guitar
jam session. Ron, having heard the sounds walked in and joined them.
He borrowed a guitar and taught them a series of raunchy whole track
pirate songs he remembered. The new students didn't realize before
afterwards to their amazement that they had met the founder of Scientology.
Bill soon joined staff
and was put in charge of Estates. He also worked as an auditor in
that period after finishing his Class VII course. Later he became
one of the first to become involved with the newly formed Sea Organization
in early 1967. He became the chief engineer on the first ship, the
Enchanter, and continued in a many different capacities.
Many of his years in
the Sea Org Bill functioned as captain on the flag ship, the Apollo.
Hubbard awarded him the rank of Captain, an honor otherwise only
bestowed on his own wife, Mary Sue. After that Bill was never known
as anything else but simply 'Captain Bill'. The Sea Org offered
many adventures and Bill was in the midst of most of them.
Hubbard was very impressed
with Bill's qualities as a missionaire. Given an difficult situation
with all the odds against it, Bill would be one of his first choices
to send out. Bill therefore -completed an impressive amount of missions
in many different environments. He has worked as a commanding officer
of most of the major organizations at the time. There is no doubt
that he was very instrumental in spearheading the subject time and
time again.
Captain Bill was the
type of person who would charge ahead no matter what the opposition
was. Of course that couldn't always be done without casualties and
he would often end up stepping on some toes. But in terms of getting
the job done he earned a lot of respect. Hubbard granted him the
title of "Kha-Khan", meaning the forgiveness 10 times
of the death penalty, which in the church means an SP declare. Bill
used several of those 'lives" in the course of his Sea Org
career.
In 1981, after Hubbard
disappeared out of touch with the organization, Bill involved himself
in finding out what was going wrong with the church. His working
theory was that it had been infiltrated and taken over by government
agents. He pursued this and found quite a lot of data to back it
up. He distributed his findings in what is called the Sector Operation
Bulletins, also drawing from unpublished materials of Hubbard's
about the political situation in the galaxy and the existence of
an off-planet destructive group, known as the Markabians.
Bill and a number of
his closest associates at the time established themselves as members
of the Galactic Patrol, the whole track organization that the Sea
Org reputedly was modelled after, in order to counter the break-down
of the church. The venture didn't get very far before everybody
concerned was officially declared suppressive by the new leaders
of the church.
The whole sale purging
by the church of its key members followed soon after that in 82.
Bill didn't hesitate
long before he started to build up activities in the independent
field. He moved to Europe and started an OT Committee to get independents
moving on 4th Dynamic projects. From 85 on he started to concentrate
on tech again. He formed a loose network of delivery centers collectively
known as 'Ron's Org'. Today there are 15-20 centers across Europe
in this network, the biggest independent delivery organization at
this point.
Training delivery terminals
and producing technical materials Bill has been very instrumental
in establishing a solid independent field in Europe. He developed
an impressive series of advanced levels continuing the bridge that
was previously available. A large amount of written materials, tapes,
and videos now add to the pool of technology that exists. This includes
the Sector 9 and Teegeeack books and a series of lectures and seminars
covering basic tech as well as such subjects as telepathy and UFOs.
The love of music has
always been very important for Bill. In the last few years he produced
a series of 19 albums of computer generated music of many different
kinds. His most popular compositions are inspired by music he recalled
from past civilizations on this and other planets.
Bill lived in various
locations across Europe, including Germany, Spain, and Switzerland.
His communicator and life companion over the last 7 years was Maria
Maloney, also a long term veteran from the Sea Org.
I think both friends
and foes alike will recognize the loss of a key player. A more dedicated
spirit it will be hard to find.
Bon Voyage Bill, and
see you amongst the stars!
