My friend Bill Landmesser died on Dec. 16 at the age of 89. What a nice man he was! I worked with Bill on a local volunteer board for several years. When difficulties arose -- and we faced our share of them -- he took an analytical approach, gathering reams of data and synthesizing it methodically. Bill spent his career working in employee relations for large companies, so naturally, he took the lead when it came to things like personnel evaluations for the staff.
It was hard to rankle Bill. I never heard him raise his voice, and the worst thing I ever heard him say about someone was that he really wasn't acting very sensibly. "D'ya think he might have some kind of a chip on his shoulder?" I remember him asking, with a baffled chuckle, when our board had to deal with a particularly cranky individual.
Bill was eager to learn and was fascinated with technology. He'd see me doing something on the computer, maybe working on a newsletter, and he'd sit down next to me and ask endless questions about what I was doing. He also spent a lot of time volunteering with service groups, in particular SCORE, a group of retirees who help young people who want to start their own businesses.
Bill unplugged completely in the summer, heading north to his cabin in the Adirondacks, where mail arrived irregularly, via boat.
A widower, Bill leaves behind three children, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
He will be greatly missed.
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