William Bert Sears was born April 23, 1929 in Wyoming, Iowa to Claude Sears and Martha Louise (Williams) Sears. He had two sisters, Claudia Tobias and Anne Marshall, who passed away serveral years ago.
He attended the University of Dubuque and was on the varsity team for basketball and track. He graduated with an engineering degree.
He joined the Navy and became a Navy pilot. While in the Navy, he met Betty Kunneman and they were married in January of 1953. They had one daughter, Sandy, that was born in December 1953.
While in the Navy, he escorted Miss Iowa in the Miss America pageant!
He left the service after a horrible plane crash and pursued his engineering degree. His first job was in Dallas, Texas with a company called LTV, which later changed it's name to Vought. Many opportunities came up elsewhere for engineering and he pursued them all. He would leave for months to work at Boeing and Northrup Grumman. He was actually a main contributor to the design of the Stealth Bomber. He was honored with a patent that he designed a piece of the wing on the Stealth Bomber.
When William was at home, he loved horse racing. At one point in his life, he even owned his own race horse named Warrior Stand. The only time the horse would win was while he wasn't there to watch because of work.
He also loved to bowl. Mens leagues, mixed leagues, pot games, and red pin bowling every Saturday night. There were 4-5 couples and they would meet at Candle Light Inn for dinner and then proceed to the bowling alley.
Golf was another favorite of his past times. He had a hole in one on hole 16 that he hit 167 yards with a 5 iron!
He had two grandchildren, Joel and Shanda. He loved them so much. He tried to teach us all the rules of life with money, but we all failed. They can recite them to you, still to this day!
At one point he bought a camper and they took it to Seattle where they lived for serveral years. Unfortunately, he had no mechanical ability and always had problems with that darn thing.
He outlived all of his buddies: Doc Lynch, Tom Wilson, and Carl Snyder. And Jim Pappas, his last buddy died several weeks before he did. They would Facetime and talk about old times. I can't imagine two 93 year olds trying to Facetime.
He loved his great grandsons: Jaxson, Judson, and Jentry. He didn't want to miss any of Jaxson's games. He was well known on the football field. He would take off across the field on his walker during halftime to discuss a call with the referee that he didn't understand.
He caught Covid in January and things went downhill. I thank Brian for his many visits to just talk horseracing.
Every Thanksgiving we spent with the HIggins family. Our families blended and we have been doing that for more than 50 years. Bill would bring wine and Betty would bring celery sticks stuffed with cheese. Poor Lynda slaved for days to prepare the rest! It was a day of food and football. My dad loved Bobby Higgins. He thought he was the funniest man alive. He always told me he wanted to sponsor him on stage-back then we didn't have comedy clubs.
His health continued to worsen after Covid. He would say it was just Covid fog! He was also diagnosed with cancer. When he found out, he went straight to Applebee's and bought a drink for everyone at the bar.
He continued going to Lonestar Park until the day he died. He always said he was lucky to have horseracing as a hobby, it kept him going. His bets were usually $2.00 a race. He would sit in the simocast area and have lunch for 4-5 races.
Bill loved the Kentucky Derby. I'm sure he was sitting at the finish line in Heaven on Derby Day!
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