William Joseph Darley, age 89, of River Forest, IL, and Williams Bay, WI, passed away at home on April 17, 2018, surrounded by his family. Bill leaves a legacy of love through family, friendships, charities, and a family business. 

The accomplishments throughout his life are a testament to his strong work ethic, adventurous spirit, Catholic faith, and devotion to his family and the W. S. Darley & Company, where he served as Chairman of the Board and CEO.  

Many will recall Bill's years of involvement in FAMA, leading as its President in 1987. He was recognized as a FAMA Star Achiever recipient in 2000 and was inducted as an Honorary Member in 2004.  Bill was the only FAMA President to have two sons follow him in that role - Paul in 2000, and Peter in 2010.

Of all his successes, Bill is most known not by what he did, but who he was. He was a friend to all - kind, humble, accepting, funny, and true - and he treated all as though he'd known them forever. 

Bill was the beloved husband of Frances Butler Darley and the late Jeanne Morrissy Darley; loving father of Stephen (Darlene), Peter (Karen), Thomas (Pamela), James (Christina), Paul (Heidi) Darley, Anne (Randy) Freedman, and the late William C. and Mary Krina (Michael) Mattio; adored grandfather of 12; dear brother of Patricia (the late Dr. Philip) Long and Reginald C. (the late Francella) Darley and the late Julia (the late Edward) LeFevour; and many nieces and nephews. 

Visitation: Sunday, April 22, 4:00-7:00pm, Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home, 203 S. Marion, Oak Park.

Funeral Services: Monday, April 23, 10:00am - Family and friends will meet at St. Luke Church, 7600 Lake St., River Forest, IL. Private interment at Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Hillside.

Memorial Service in Indianapolis: Friday, April 27th, 8:00am

St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church
126 W. Georgia St., Indianapolis, IN
(directly across the street from the convention center)

Personal notes of condolence may be sent to:

The Darley Family
c/o Paul Darley
325 Spring Lake Drive
Itasca, IL 60143

WILSONVILLE (OR)/AUSTIN (TX) – FLIR Systems, Inc. and DroneSense, Inc. announced that FLIR has completed a strategic investment in DroneSense, makers of a unique software platform that serves the growing needs of public safety organizations in utilizing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to better perform their missions.

The minority investment by FLIR in DroneSense will create opportunities for the companies to collaborate and share their respective expertise and customer relationships to develop and bring to market advanced UAS operating, management, and reporting systems. FLIR’s advanced thermal imaging payloads for UAS platforms provide first responders a new sense of awareness by imaging heat, seeing through smoke, and seeing at night. DroneSense’s comprehensive solution will enable first responders of all types to build and scale their UAS programs with full accountability and transparency. Together, the FLIR and DroneSense offerings will enhance situational awareness, act as a force multiplier, and ultimately save more lives as organizations continue to integrate UAS into daily missions.

“This alliance with DroneSense will help bring to market a truly mission-critical solution needed by first responders to effectively deploy a complete UAS program across their organizations,” said James Cannon, President and CEO of FLIR. “We believe this platform is scalable geographically, across multiple markets, and across multiple FLIR Business Units. While focused today on UAS’s, we see longer term opportunity for the solution to be extendable to other forms of sensing devices.”

About FLIR Systems

Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon, FLIR Systems is a world-leading maker of sensor systems that enhance perception and heighten awareness, helping to save lives, improve productivity, and protect the environment. Through its nearly 3,500 employees, FLIR’s vision is to be “The World’s Sixth Sense” by leveraging thermal imaging and adjacent technologies to provide innovative, intelligent solutions for security and surveillance, environmental and condition monitoring, outdoor recreation, machine vision, navigation, and advanced threat detection. For more information, please visit www.flir.com and follow @flir.

About DroneSense

Founded in 2015 and based in Austin, Texas, DroneSense offers a comprehensive solution that empowers organizations to build, manage, and scale unmanned aircraft programs. DroneSense has designed a mission-critical software platform that enables users to leverage the full capabilities of drones in all operations.  Drones powered by the DroneSense platform provide decision quality data that expands situational awareness and acts as a force multiplier, ultimately leading to more lives saved. To learn more about DroneSense, please visit www.dronesense.com