| Graduation Year | Class of 1959 |
| Date of Passing | May 07, 2012 |
| About | I never got to know Bill as well as I would have liked to have. He was in the class ahead of mine (1959). I first spotted him in the halls of BHS and quickly concluded that in the future, whenever I saw Bill walking toward me that I would need to decide if I was going to veer left or right in order to avoid a collision. Clearly he was bigger than I was. But for someone his height and weight (and hair cut) he almost always had a smile on his face and we usually exchanged "heys". I read where Bill died of complications resulting from "Agent Orange" in Vietnam. There are many ways our troops came in contact with it from filling tanks with it that would be attached to planes or helicopters to spray, riding or piloting the air craft which sprayed, riding or piloting the gun ship that followed the "sprayer" to protect it and cleaning the ships after a spraying. There was also just walking through recently sprayed vegetation that was drooping and in general hanging down while it died. Regardless of Bill's exposure to Agent Orange, he was a hero. He did exactly as he was told and ended up contracting terrible medical problems and ultimately died for all his efforts. I will miss him and if you ever encountered him in the halls of BHS, you will too. Bob DeGrilla |
