All of my memories are happy ones of Bill. One early one: not long after joining IDEO, in 1996, Thomas Overthun and I were on one of our many trips to Grand Rapids to work with Steelcase, and our Hertz rental car had been upgraded to some giant Buick. While the car seemed appropriate to tooling around West Michigan, we were soon mortified when we ran into Bill at the pyramid, folding himself out of a purlpley-pink Ford Festiva rent-a-wreck. I think I said “Bill, why are you driving such a car?” and he said something like “a consultant should always rent a humble car”. Too right, and it really says a lot about Bill and what mattered to him.
Another happy memory is his farewell and parting shot to us IDEO partners, where he boldly declared “just because I’m a wrinkly, doesn’t mean I’m giving up… I’m going to go do _this_ now”, and sang us a custom crafted tune, gave us a stern but loving assessment of where the firm was, and bid us a fond farewell. As for so many others posting here, I count myself lucky to have known such a happy and smart man. There was always a twinkle in his eye.