Bill and I were classmates at Northern Illinois University in the 1980s, he died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage on Thursday, February 5th 2009 at age 51.

After NIU, Bill joined the Navy to help pay off his student loans. He requested and was stationed at Bremerton Naval Base across the Puget Sound from Seattle. Bill was assigned to an aircraft carrier as a purser to the first mate. Although he was gay he wanted to keep his personal life out of his naval career and would have me pose as his girlfriend to pick him up at the ferry dock for his shore leaves. We had a lot of fun bouncing around Seattle on my Vespa scooter throughout the late 80s. 

Once his service in the navy was over, Bill received his realtors license and worked with agencies to help find elderly and disadvantaged people affordable housing throughout the Seattle area. He was the photographer at my wedding and took many pictures of Kenric as a baby. He was active in his church choir and traveled with them to Paris last summer to perform in concert. Bill was a dear friend even though our lifestyles in recent years grew distant and kept us from seeing each other as often as we would have liked, we continued to exchanged letters and phone calls.

I will miss his witty social commentary, his outrageously bitchy sense of humor, and his infectious laughter.

He was truly too young to die and I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that he is gone.

This is the last picture I took of him in 2005.