Billy Grant Quesenbery, Jr.

Billy Grant Quesenbery, Jr, 79, was born in Bristol, Virginia, on September 12, 1943, the oldest child and only son of Billy Grant Quesenbery and Lena Mitchell Quesenbery. Bill passed away, surrounded by loved ones, at MUSC, following a short and very hard battle with cancer, on June 1, 2023. The funeral service will be held Saturday, June 10, 2023 in the J. Henry Stuhr Inc., Mount Pleasant Chapel, 1494 Mathis Ferry Road at 12:00 pm  Inurnment will follow at Mount Pleasant Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends one hour prior to service. 

Bill graduated from Ohio University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1965, followed by a master’s degree in psychology in 1968. He worked at Portsmouth Receiving Hospital under his mentor Dr. Russell Leiter, who patented the first nonverbal IQ test, which is still widely used today for nonverbal IQ testing. Bill also worked in a psychiatric criminology facility in Ohio before marrying and moving to South Carolina to pursue his Ph.D.

At the University of South Carolina, he earned a fellowship with the National Institute of Mental Health, worked at the state mental hospital, completed his internship at the Devereux Foundation in Devon, Pennsylvania, then graduated with a Ph.D. in School Psychology in 1971. 

Dr. Quesenbery took a job with the Charleston County School District in 1971 as a school psychologist and the coordinator to train teachers in classroom behavior management. In 1976, Dr. Quesenbery became the Director of Research and Evaluation and, along with managing the district’s standardized testing, he also created the Gifted and Talented program SAIL, which still holds the same name.

In 1981, Dr. Quesenbery started his private practice, helping thousands of families over his forty years in practice. During his private practice years, he was an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina-Beaufort, the College of Charleston, and The Citadel. He also served as the Consulting editor to the Council for Exceptional Children’s Journal Assessment for Effective Instruction. He was a past president of the South Carolina Association of School Psychologists, and a board member of the South Carolina Branch of the International Dyslexia Association. Dr. Quesenbery retired in 2021, but he made a brief emergence from retirement to work as a counselor in the mental health center at the College of Charleston.

Bill was an avid sailor, lifelong learner, and skilled handyman. He loved working on projects, such as taking apart and rebuilding computers. He enjoyed spending time with his family and with his beloved cat Rosie.

Bill is survived by his loving wife Lindy N. Quesenbery, his two daughters, Ann Q. Baldwin (Jay), Amy Quesenbery (Kevin), their mother Betty D. Quesenbery, his grandchildren: Julian T. Baldwin, Jr, Cullen Patrick Baldwin, and Anna Katherine Baldwin, his stepdaughters Jennifer Tarrant and Carolyn Mims, his step-grandchildren Adaire Tarrant and Langdon Tarrant, his sister Kathy Q. Sargent, a niece Jesse Smith, two nephews Bill Wolfe and Ray Sargent, and his great uncle Dave Quesenbery. He is predeceased by his parents, his sister Linda Craddock, and his nephew Jonathan Wolfe.

Bill will be missed by his family and friends but will always remain in their memories and hearts. To our beloved Bill (aka Dad and Papa Beard), may you have, “Fair Winds and Following Seas.”