Bill Carlson, 47, loved ’80s music, worked out all the time

Bill Carlson was out with friends a few years ago when he started talking with a young woman who looked mighty familiar.

Twenty years earlier, it turned out, she’d been the receptionist at a gym in Dunwoody where Mr. Carlson worked out.

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William ‘Bill’ Keith Carlson kept up his fitness activities, even during his chemotherapy treatment.

“I had always had a crush on him” back then, said Dina Geeslin-Carlson of Suwanee, “but he was engaged at the time.”

When they met again, both had been married and divorced. They struck up a relationship after becoming reacquainted, and married in 2007.

Theirs was a blended family. He had a daughter from his previous marriage. She had three sons. Mr. Carlson and the boys went dirt-bike riding, attended races at Atlanta Motor Speedway and shared similar tastes in music.

“For my son’s 13th birthday, we took him to see AC/DC,” Mrs. Carlson said. “My husband was a 1980s music fan. As a couple, we were stuck in the 80s. There wasn’t a concert in town that we missed. From the Black Crowes to Def Leppard — we went.”

William “Bill” Keith Carlson, 47, of Suwanee and formerly of Dunwoody, died Thursday of gastro-esophogeal-junction cancer at his home. A memorial service will be held at

3 p.m. today at McDonald & Son Funeral Home & Crematory in Cumming.

Mr. Carlson worked out five days a week at the Roswell Gold’s Gym or Bodyplex in Suwanee.

“He was a workout nut,” his wife said. “Gosh, he could bench hundreds of pounds.”

Even when he was undergoing chemotherapy, the Dunwoody High grad tried to stay fit. He would jog through Sharon Springs Park in Cumming. He’d taken up competitive tennis around the time of his cancer diagnosis in June 2008. That didn’t stop him.

“He’d be out there with his chemo gear on, slathered in sunscreen, hitting away,” said a friend, Jordan Smith of Buford. “His first match lasted three hours, and afterwards, even he was joking that maybe he shouldn’t be doing this. He was always fit and healthy, and I think that went a long way with how long he was able to fight.”

Family friend Michelle Rains said the Carlsons were meant to be. Fate, she believes, brought them together again after so many years.

“He was a great role model for her three boys and his daughter,” Mrs. Rains said. “But in the long run, God put Dina in Bill’s life to help him with the struggle he has gone through in the past year. They came together for those purposes.”

Other survivors include his mother, Nina C. Carlson of Dunwoody; a daughter, Jordan Moran Carlson; three stepsons, Garrett Geeslin, Grayson Geeslin and Griffin Geeslin, all of Suwanee; and two sisters, Melissa Farmer of Roswell and Cyndi Johnson.