William Thomas Casper Jr died April 18th, 2025 at the family home in Swansboro.

He was born October 27, 1940 in Swansboro at the Thomas H. Pritchard House at 228 S Elm Street to William Thomas (Bill) Casper and Eunice Cornelia Barnes Casper. After graduating from Swansboro High School, he enlisted in the Coast Guard Reserve and was stationed at Camp May, NJ for basic training. Upon completing his service, he married Susan Mercer Jones of Swansboro on August 31, 1963. The couple moved to Greenville, NC where WT continued his education at East Carolina College, which later became East Carolina University. After graduating from East Carolina, he taught Industrial Arts at Swansboro High School for one year. When his father died unexpectedly in 1970, WT took over the family business, Casper Marine Service (Casper's Marina). Originally, the Marina was a boat yard whose primary business was repair and service to outboard engine sales and the delivery of home heating fuel in the winter. Never one to sit idle, he began building Casper Skiffs in the 70s-80s and eventually built a flat-bottom clam dredge named after his partner and friend Jimmy Midgett. His dream, however, was to build a dry storage facility and enter into a new phase of the family business

In typical WT fashion, WT built the existing building and docks by hand along with several of his core friends and his wife, Susan. He not only built it once but many times over the years, thanks to the hurricanes that have made landfall at or near Swansboro.

All in all, WT spent the majority of his life from a boy swimming and fishing to a teenager water skiing and playing his beloved 4-string guitar to an adult making a living and raising his family a stone's throw from where he was born, up the hill from the marina. Until he could no longer physically get there, his one desire was to go to the Marina. He never wanted to spend a day without seeing the White Oak River.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Bill and Eunice Casper, and a nephew, Harmen Wesley Simpson.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Susan; daughters Gregg Casper (David) and Grayson Casper Wellons (Jim); grandsons William Richard McCormac (Mariella), Ward Inman McCormac (Katlyn), and Benjamin Casper Wellons; granddaughters Lilly Mercer Wellons and Lucy Catherine Wellons; great grandson Beckett William McCormac; sister Billie Jean Casper Simpson formerly of Swansboro but now of Charlotte; and two nephews W Scot Simpson and T Shane Simpson.

A memorial service will be held at 10:00 A.M. on May 5th at Swansboro United Methodist Church, 665 W Corbett Avenue, Swansboro, NC.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Swansboro United Methodist Church Building Fund in his name