Longtime Nashville business and community leader William S. "Bill" Wire II, who served on boards for more than 15 state and local nonprofits, died at home July 19. He was 94.
Wire spent 32 years as an executive for Genesco Inc., a Nashville-based apparel brand that makes Journeys and Johnston & Murphy footwear and other products. He retired as chairman in 1994 after serving in that role for eight years.
A 1986 Tennessean profile described Wire as having "an informal, shirtsleeve manner and easygoing wit."
In 2003, Wire became a founding director for Truxton Trust, a high-profile private bank and wealth services firm in Nashville, where he served for more than a decade.
"Truxton Trust company was built on the shoulders of Bill Wire," Truxton Trust Chairman
and CEO Tom Stumb said. "His passion for professional excellence and business integrity are ingrained in the culture of our business."
He also served on the boards of First American National Bank and Dollar General Corp.
Wire also served the larger business community as a member of several business organizations, including the Tennessee Association of Business, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Nashville Better Business Bureau.
Outside of business, Wire also served on the boards of more than a dozen nonprofits, including the YMCA Foundation, the PENCIL Foundation, which connects business to Metro schools, the Martha O'Bryan Center, which serves families in generational poverty, and the Nashville Rotary Club.
A lifelong avid golfer, Wire belonged to, among others, the Belle Meade Country Club, which hosted his celebration of life July 24.
He attended the First Presbyterian Church of Nashville from 1962 until he died.
Wire, who earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Alabama, served two years in the U.S. Air Force as part of the Judge Advocate General’s Department, rising to the rank of captain.
He is survived by his wife, Cheryl Christine Wire, his daughter Deborah Buckmaster Wire, a grandson, a great grandson and a stepdaughter, Natalie James. Wire is preceded in death by his first wife, Alice Jones Wire, and his daughter Alice Wire Freeman.
The family has asked that donations be made to Alive Hospice.
Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Former Genesco Inc. chairman William S. 'Bill' Wire II dies at 94
