I am deeply saddened by this news. I had a nice mail exchange with William three years ago and two months ago also. William gave me very valuable tips for the route selection for a planned trip through the Northwest of the USA and Canada.
He knew the whole area like his backyard including hotels etc.
The wonderful thing was that his travel tips were not just "technical" but full of stories and personal experiences of each of the places and all the decades and thus almost a piece of exciting American history that Bill brought to life. For example, I learned that Port Townsend is not just a city worth seeing, but that Bill's brother went to the Naval Military Academy there as a young man, or that this city was to become the capital of Washington and not the city of Olympia...if the railroad had been involved, etc. I will always see his mails as a valuable memory of someone I only knew through the net...but it still makes me sad.
Death is a paradox and it makes you speechless. When someone has to suffer for a long time and is in pain, sometimes one speaks of death as redemption. When someone literally goes on great tours with the Morgan until the last day of his long and fulfilled life, like Bill, then it is even more unimaginable that death will still happen one day.
But anyway it is always sad and full of loss when someone you like very much has to go.
RIP Bill
Heinz
