Who is Bill?

How many of you like fruitcakes? I see no hands raised! How many of you have been lucky enough to eat a slice of one of Bill Newkirk's fruitcakes? If you have, you know this guy knows how to bake a fruitcake. That is one of the great things about the Christmas season at Avenida. Bill shares his fruitcakes with the rest of us!

However, there is much more to Bill than being a great baker. Just sit back, and I will share the story of this man who has been living here for the past few years.

Bill was born at this grandparent's home in Decatur, Illinois. The house was unique, because it also doubled as a grocery store. His little family (he had a sister two years older) was living with the grandparents because of the depression. He does not know if there was even a doctor present at his birth because boys never ask those important questions.

His first memory is of living in a different house that his parents rented after they moved from his grandparent's home. He was climbing on a flower box which fell when he was four years old. Of course, he fell too and he broke his nose which was the first of many boyhood adventures. They moved from that rented house to another house which was more rural as it was situated half way between Decatur and Mt. Zion. It only had four rooms. They had a pump for drinking water and an outhouse. Bill remembers having to use boiling water to get the pump to work in the cold winters. 

Since they were in the country he went to a one room school. Bill had the same teacher for all eight years. One year she would teach first, third, fifth and seventh grade. The next year she would teach second, fourth, sixth and eighth grades. So Bill's seven year old sister skipped a grade and was placed in third grade. Bill was only five but he started first grade anyway. He did all right academically but he was at a disadvantage because he was always the smallest and youngest in the class. Sometimes that is especially tough for a boy. When Bill was ready for high school they had moved once again.

Bill was only sixteen throughout most of his senior year in high school. He did well in his studies, maintaining a B average and he really liked science and math. While he was in school he often spent his Saturdays in his father's shop. His dad was an electrician and people would bring him electrical appliances to repair. Bill enjoy figuring out what was wrong and then doing the necessary repairs. Doing this was more of a pleasure than a chore.

After he graduated from high school there was no money for college. Bill was eligible for the Draft, so he enlisted in the Air Force at seventeen in 1948. He was shipped to Wichita Falls, Texas. After basic he was sent to Rantoul, Illinois and was trained in aircraft instrument maintenance. From there he went to California and finally Okinawa. The Korean War had begun and he spent two years doing instrument maintenance for B-29 bombers. 

In 1951 he returned home and was stationed at an air base at New Castle, Delaware for one year prior to being discharged after obtaining the rank of Staff Sergeant. He returned to Decatur, and sent out twenty five resumes in search of a job. He got five responses and took a job in Rochester, New York as a Field Instrument Analyst. For training, Bill was transferred to the Chicago area. He rented a room in a family home and then became a hotel resident. He met his wife, Mary, in August, 1954. By December he had given her a ring and they were married in May, 1955.

After a series of moves they ended up owning a house in Hillside. In the meantime, Bill worked a large territory which went from Fargo to all of Michigan, parts of Wisconsin and parts of Indiana. He did this for ten years, and was promoted to Sales Engineer. In the meantime he was taking classes at the Illinois Institute of Technology to learn more about engineering. This was difficult because of all his traveling but Bill just loved his job. 

Instrumentation can refer to devices as simple as thermometers or as complex as multi-sensor components of industrial control systems. Today, instruments can be found in labs, refineries, factories and vehicles, as well as in everyday household use (smoke detectors and thermostats.) Bill just loved to figure out the steps to make something work. There might be just 3 steps or there might be 300 steps needed. Instrument engineers specialize in troubleshooting, repairing and maintaining instruments and instrumentation systems. Bill just loved to solve the puzzles. 

He was promoted to Sales Engineer and stayed at that job for just five years. He was not a born salesman, so he finally quit. He did not enjoy taking folks out to lunch, drinking and selling. It was definitely not his style, He left sales and after a period of time he became Senior Instrument Engineer for Corn Products and was designing process control systems for grinding corn. There were many steps involved in the pressure and temperature control involved in grinding corn. Bill really loved this job but he had to often visit plants in Canada and Mexico. Sometimes he was away from home for three weeks. He was sent to Colombia for a one week consulting trip. He went from a freezing winter in Illinois to ninety plus degrees in Colombia. The heated weather just made him feel ill.  Despite his love for doing the job, the traveling was too much. He returned from Colombia and told his boss he was retiring. He was done with the job he loved in the middle nineties just before retirement age. 

He enjoyed retirement until Mary got ill. In 2003, Mary passed away after 47 years of marriage. They had four children. Two of his boys became engineers also. The third boy is in charge of several shopping centers in Florida and adjoining states. His only daughter just retired as a counselor for hearing impaired children for northeastern Illinois.

After a time of living alone Bill joined a group for widows and widowers called Anew. He joined the steering committee and soon found himself running the meetings, planning for entrainment, speakers and other necessities which keep an organization going. After a year and a half he began dating Joan, another member. They became a couple. They were together fifteen years. She broke a hip and he helped care for her. Unfortunately, she deteriorated into dementia after the surgery. Dementia is not as progressive as Alzheimer's so Joan was always aware of who and where she was. Bill cared for her for five years until she died in April, 2020 just after the pandemic began in March, He moved to Avenida in August, 2020. Now he is with us in between his frequent trips to visit a son in Florida or another son in Seattle, Washington. He also has a son and daughter who live nearby. 

So what about that fruitcake? Well, here is the good news. Bill has already started his baking and has some already stored in his freezer. Something for all of us to look forward to as the holidays approach. Keep that oven heating up as much as possible, Bill.