Deceased Classmate: Bill Coombs
Date Deceased: Febuary-7-2019
Cause of Death: Natural causes
Kirkland, WA

The other day I received word through my longtime friend and our classmate Rick Wyckoff that our classmate Bill Coombs had passed away at Evergreen Hospital. Rick had recently been contacted by Bill's former wife Janet. I found that the folks at Eastside Trains in Kirkland posted a nice, undated portrait of Bill on their facebook account at: https://www.facebook.com/eastsidetrains/posts/2119851538110053/ It was there that I last met Bill for a "reunion" of sorts in September 2015. Rick, it turned out, had gotten Bill a job during high school at the Mercury/Ford dealership in Burien. Through some mystery of faith one of my wife's Okanogan County cousins also somehow got a job at that dealership as well and worked with both Rick and Bill. Of course, I would not even meet my wife until years later, well into college. After graduating high school in 1965 all three guys went their separate ways, and had not seen each other since high school. However, none of them forgot their good times working together at the dealership. Sadly I didn't take notes of my chat with Bill. I do, however, distinctly remember talking with him about his career as an insurance underwriter and the difficult process of covering large risks his carrier signed onto in connection with the construction of the Alaska North Slope pipeline to Valdez. He loved that work and was obviously proud to discuss it. Rest in peace Bill. Greg Fuller