Bill, along with Alan and I went to visit the Charles Spurgeon library and the Chord, Auburn and Doosenberg museum. I remember on this trip that we went to get a nice juicy steak after visiting the library. We called Lisa to research a good place to eat. After much debate we arrived at our destination. Unfortunately for us, this location (which had a sister location) had lost most of its stock due to a refrigeration failure. We kept ordering only to find out the item was out of stock. Bill, having had enough of this, asked what DID they have in stock in his deep, authoritative voice. The manager came over and gave us deal after some prompting from Bill. We paid for the cut he had in stock but with a free sizeable upgrade. During our meal, I felt like some wine and Bill agreed. So, after some more negotiations, Bill got our bottle of wine comped. It was an excellent meal with even better company. Bill always knew how to make it a memorable yet cherished occasion. 

I first met Bill at a PAFOA meet & greet over 15 years ago.  Over the years we became friends and have stayed that way since my moving west 10 years ago.  I will miss his stories and his wit.  My prayers for family and all that mourn Mr Bill's passing.  I wish I could attend the memorial, my own health issues prevent that at this time.  

I am shocked and saddened to read of Bill's passing. He would come to mind every so often over the years, but today I thought I'd actually follow up on those thoughts and found this article. I went to HS with Bill, wrestled on the same team at PMHS over the years, and generally had lots of fun outside of school. Bill was talented on the wrestling mat, was in the honors classes in school, and we spent every lunch hour together with others friends, including Keith Schrak, Warren Seese, Mark Matthews and Bob Nash. But the first time I encountered Bill was well before HS when my Little League team visited Tobyhanna to play Bill's team. As the visiting team, we were first up to bat. Bill's team trotted out onto the field and Bill lumbered out to left field (I don't think it would be fair to say Bill was among the speediest of runners!). Upon seeing this huge kid out on the field, my coach immediately approached the umpire. He was clearly asking how old Bill was. How embarrassing, I thought! But this kind of challenge was apparently not unknown to Bill's coach. The umpire went over to Bill's coach, who immediately produced Bill's birth certificate! Play proceeded and Tobyhanna crushed us! One other remembrance I have is whe the HS lunch crew would get together on various weekends to launch model rockets. I believe it was with Bill's goading if not his simple excitement that I stuffed extra engines into one of my prize models to get a super launch. As we backed away from the launch pad to fire the rocket, we all looked at each other with high expectations of something really special. We launched, and the rocket spent about 5 milliseconds in vertical flight before the heavy and unbalanced engines turned the rocket, which of course shot right at us. I still laugh to this day remembering how we all scattered as the rocket zoomed past us and disappeared into the trees surrounding the field we were launching from. We never recovered that model! Over the years we sadly lost touch, although there were a couple times when I returned from AZ where I was attending college when a few of us got together to remember times like these, have a social beer and some food. I'm so sad to know we won't have those times again in our old age. I know Bill left a major mark on my life. I wish his family peace and hopefully my remembrances of the young Bill might bring a smile to your faces. In sadness but with love,

Doug Vetter