Bill passed on in Valley Memorial Hospital in Livermore, California on February 10, 1989 in the presence of his wife, son, daughter and mother after a struggle with cancer. Bill and his wife, Dorothy, raised a family in Pleasanton, California from the early 1960s through the early 1980s, when their nest emptied. Born in 1934 in Illinois and raised just outside of Chicago, Bill later graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1955. He chose to work at Sandia Labratory in New Mexico because the desert wilderness inspired him for photography, his true passion. He met his wife, Dorothy, at a party in Albuquerque and married her in 1958.
Bill's artistic skill and passion flourished in Pleasanton, and he planned on practicing his photography full time after early retirement from Sandia Labs, but he died only 6 months before this. Over the years, Bill showed his photographs in galleries throughout the Bay Area, including San Francisco, Hayward, Carmel, Pleasanton and Livermore, in addition to out-of-state group shows in Texas and New York. He loved to photograph in the early morning in the misty hills surrounding Pleasanton and Livermore. He also loved to find beauty and interesting patterns in the mundane -- an old oil tank or office window reflection.
Bill's intelligence, integrity, stability, patience, humor, artisic eye and loving kindness helped anchor our family.
In 1989, Bill was survived by his wife Dorothy, son John and daughter Jennifer, who later had three children (Bill's grandchildren), Aimee, Justin and Jacob. Dorothy, died in 2009.