Bill Christy dies

If you have been to a sporting event in the past two decades, then Bill Christy probably had an effect on what you were watching. Christy spent three decades as either an official or official evaluator on the high school and college level. He was instrumental in providing officials to games, a mammoth task that he handled with unusual aplomb.
On Tuesday, Christy died of a heart attack at 67.
Christy lived in Monongahela and was a graduate of Beth-Center High School and California University. He spent much of his life working for the Department of Public Welfare but he made his mark in sports with officials. He evaluated officials in the Big East and Atlantic 10 conferences, and the NCAA at all levels.
Maybe his most important job was as assigner of officials to events, a task that took a great deal of time and organization. But he made it seem easy.
Christy began officiating high school events in the early 1970s and eventually moved on to evaluating and assigning. One of the bright spots in his career came in 1996, when he worked the NCAA softball championships in Akron.
He was an assigner for the Washington-Greene County basketball officials, Southwestern Pennsylvania volleyball and worked with the Harmon Creek Softball chapter.
A soft-spoken and quiet man, Christy shunned the spotlight. He was smart and confident in his abilities. He spoke often at the Tri-County Athletic Directors Association meetings to help the ADs better organize their officiating crews and explain changes that regularly occurred.
His wife Lorene died in May. They were the parents of twin daughters, Haverly and Tricia, and a son, Christopher Matthew.