Marc Sproule

a best bud since sometime in grammar school, i used to see bill every year in long beach when i went down there for the races in the streets.

dick de puy and i went down to lb together twice. once for a "remision party" that wasn't and again shortly before he died. one of the most gut-wrenching days of my life.

bill and i shared musical tastes...americana.

one night i was listening to kpig in freedom. http://www.kpig.com/ for those not familiar with it.

at any rate, i was driving over to san jose to pick up a friend at the airport. the pig was giving away a new cd and the winner was "bill in long beach".

figured it was willy and called him the next day.

his response, "i figured you were listening, why didn't you call last night?"

fast forward a few months...i'm at home listening to the pig and once again the dj said "bill in long beach has just won another cd."

i called as soon as i heard he had won again. blocked  my number. he answered wtih "hi marc"

we both cracked up.

i miss you bill.

Bill Probert

Bill and I became friends at EA Hall.  He was a great guy, a great athlete and a wonderful friend. We became even better friends in high school and I always enjoyed hanging with Bill. He had a great sense of humor and always made me feel good as his friend.

I will miss your smile and the warmth of your friendship.

Ken Brownell

I became friendly with Bill at E. A. Hall when we played sports together.  We remained friends through high school.  I loved Bill's great dry sense of humor.

For many years there was a sign on Freedom Blvd that said "Whiskey Hill" which was Freedom's name.  A group of us discussed "taking" the sign for a decoration for our college rooms but never had the nerve to "take" it.  When we were home for the summer after our sophomore year in college, we had the discussion again.  I decided to do it and went out one night at 1:00 AM to "take" the sign.  To my horror, the sign was gone.  A few days later I mentioned to Bill that the sign was gone, he looked at me with a grin that was ear to ear....  He had gone out earlier the same evening and grabbed the sign.  We laughed about that everytime we saw one another.

Bill was a good guy, he left us too soon.

Dave Mercer

Bill was one of my first good friends when I moved to Watsonville. Lots of friends in the Macquiddy gang. he was tough football player. We sure had some good "lefties" then: Bill,Kenny(best fastball that I remember,)Dave Nichols,Paul Wilcox,Benich,Steve Mine(batted),Joe Richards,Ben Ragsac,Scott Trier(?), and oh yeah Mr. Todd(remember the ring to the head),Coach John Goicovich,Doyle Provence, can you think of others?I can still see Bill laughing quietly at some humorous thing,he had a good sense of humor. was his street California,Oregon, or Washington.

Karen Kelley (Lund)

I remember Bill drove the coolest cars.  He had a new one toward the end of our senior year.  He also had installed this groovy stereo system with a "reverberator."   We were at Dick DuPuy's end of the year party and Bill took a bunch of us to see his car, but mostly to hear the music.  I swear I could feel that bass from my brain to my toes. . . it was as if the music went THROUGH you! Coolest evening. . . great party, Dick, and a very fun memory of my friend, Bill Lawson.  Boy, could he dance !  Gone too soon, dear friend.     Karen

Jim Lopes

Bill and I hung out together a lot.  Bill was reserved, but very smart with a great sense of humor.  Plus, his father was the local Buick (?) dealer and he always had a neat car from the lot.  My favorite memory with Bill was our sophomore year when we ditched school and went to Berkeley for the Tournament of Champions.  We watched a lot of good basketball and wandered around the campus and environs, trying to be cool but pretty blown away by a lot of what was going on – this was Berkeley in the 60’s.  We stayed with my brother who was a sophomore at UC.  I have no recollection of how (or if) we got away with it but it was clearly a highlight of our high school experience.  As with so many of us, we drifted apart after we graduated and were only occasionally in touch.

Charles Banovac

I can't remember when I first met Billie, must have been around 10 years old. He was wiry and tough- what they call solid in the Deep South. His smile was contagious. Billie always stood up for himself, He wouldn't back down, no matter who it was. I used to bug him about ordering a 426 Dodge with a Torqueflite at his Dad's Dodge dealership to leave in the showroom For Sale (so we could sneak out and drive it ourselves when nobody was looking). One day Billie called and said "we're going down to the Dodge storage building". I figured that there was a 426 in there. Billie brought out a red Dodge Dart with a 273 V8 and a 4 Speed. We rode around for a couple of hours and had a ball. I truly enjoyed seeing him at the mini-reunion at Chaminade a number of years ago. Dick DePuy was lucky enough to be his neighbor when we were young. It was fun to see those two together. My dad used to buy Buicks from the Lawson family- a '49, a '52, a '58 and a '65. They were nice people. According to Bob Murphy ( the former announcer for Stanford and other venues) Billie's older uncle was the key in bringing the Shrine Football Game to San Francisco where it stayed for many years. I also miss Bill.