WWII Army veteran William H. Mills Jr., 94

William H. Mills Jr., a son of immigrants who landed at Normandy during World War II, fought under Gen. George S. Patton and, like so many other returning servicemen, settled his family in Levittown, has died.

Mills, who lived most recently in Riverhead, was 94. He died Wednesday and had been in declining health, his family said.

During his service overseas, his family said that he declined a promotion from 1st sergeant after distinguishing himself in combat because it would have taken him away from the men he'd fought alongside.

Such independence and concern for doing the right thing marked Mills' character, his family said.

"Don't go with the crowd, be your own person," Mills' daughter, Kathleen Bennett of Ridge, said her father stressed as she was growing up. "Do what's right, no matter who is looking."

Mills was born in Astoria, Queens, to an Irish immigrant father and a mother from Sweden. The couple -- he a butler and she a cook -- met while employed on a wealthy estate.

Their son met his wife, Adeline Donley, because both were motorcycle enthusiasts, part of a group of riders who would take day trips from the city out to Montauk and other spots on the East End. They married in 1943, just before Mills shipped out overseas.

In Europe, Mills served with the 774th Tank Destroyer Battalion, part of Patton's Third Army, his family said.

After the war, he settled in Elmhurst, Queens, and returned to the U.S. Postal Service, where he'd worked before being drafted. Mills and his wife moved to Levittown in 1948, becoming one of the original families in the community.

Mills rose in the postal service ranks, working out of a regional office at Penn Station.

There, he designed and implemented a program that called on a cadre of specialists to provide technical support and operations assistance to post offices from Boston to Philadelphia to Puerto Rico, his family said.

In 1968 Mills became the postal service's regional marketing director, his family said. He retired in 1971 and in 1976 moved to Southold, where he and his wife spent 26 years living in Reydon Shores.

In retirement, Mills spent considerable time on a boat named for his granddaughter, The Kirsten B, fishing for bluefish, snapper, flounder and fluke.

His family would often accompany him, and Mills used the trips to teach his grandchildren about boating and fishing.

In addition to his daughter Kathleen, Mills is survived by a granddaughter Kirsten Bennett O'Rourke, of New Fairfield, Conn., and a grandson, Sean Bennett, of St. James. He is also survived by four great-grandchildren, Ava, Madeline, Tessa and Eamonn. His wife died in 2004.

Mills is being buried at 11 a.m. Monday at Calverton National Cemetery after a brief service.