William Lynn Beery

Bill Beery, age 72, passed away on July 5, 2016 in Seattle, WA. Bill died of natural causes following a long illness linked to a traumatic brain injury. He spent the day surrounded by in-person and virtual love from family and friends both near and far. Throughout the course of his injury, Bill and his family were aided by hundreds of dedicated supporters, comprising the devoted Team Bill.

Bill was born on March 17th, 1944 to Monica (Reeves) and Marvin Beery in Normal, IL. He has one older sister Karen Beery Kelley. Bill was raised in Lexington, IL, population 900. He enjoyed baseball and math, and was a loyal paperboy for the local Pantagraph Paper. Bill graduated from high school in 1962 with two clear options: to take over the Lexington garbage collection route or attend college. He chose Loras College in Dubuque, IA. At Loras, Bill served as a class officer and was known for wit and humor during his annual stint as emcee of the college musical revues. During Bill’s senior year he was studying in the library when he became distracted by a freshman named Madeline Powers from Clarke College (Loras’ sister school). He told his friend he would like to ask her out but was in need of a wingman. His friend called, posing as Bill. Guilt set in and Bill asked his friend to phone her back and explain, “That was not the real Bill Beery. The real Bill Beery is going to call. You will know him by the code words Marvin and Monica”.

Bill graduated in the spring of 1966 with a major in Psychology. At graduation he was among a small group of students selected to meet Ted Kennedy and Sargent Shriver in a ceremony to honor the five Loras graduates who had chosen to serve in the U.S. Peace Corps. Bill was bound for Senegal, West Africa; the flight from O’Hare to Peace Corps training marked his first airplane ride. He arrived in Senegal with poor French, some favorite books of poetry, and a ukulele from Madeline. He spent his two years of service working to improve water systems in rural Bignona. He also spent time writing letters back and forth with one Iowa college student. Bill’s time in Senegal blazed the path for a life of travel and service.

Bill returned from West Africa and worked as a Peace Corps recruiter on college campuses across the midwest, carving out time for frequent trips to Dubuque to pay visits to Madeline. On December 27, 1969, the couple married during a blizzard in Estherville, IA. Bill and Madeline moved to Alexandria, VA where Bill served as assistant director of the Economic Opportunity Commission. While there, Bill drove a Volkswagen Beetle convertible and hosted internationally-themed dinners for friends in a tiny apartment, outfitted with pillows for sitting, crates for books, and even some pieces of actual furniture. Bill was accepted to the master’s program at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, taking the couple to Chapel HIll in 1971. There Bill spent time making lifelong friends, and honing his focus on community health. After graduating he worked for Duke University, but remained a fervent supporter of the UNC Tarheels.

In 1976, Bill accepted the position of associate director of Health and Higher Education Programs for Peace Corps Thailand. He and Madeline moved to Bangkok, Thailand and then continued on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Bill’s first daughter Erin was born in Kuala Lumpur just before the end of his appointment. Bill famously told fellow passengers on the plane ride back to the states that the four month old was already speaking.

Bill, Madeline, and Erin re-settled in Chapel HIll where Bill worked for the Health Sciences Research Center at the UNC. It was there that Bill began his work in the field of health evaluation. At HSRC, Bill began to research smoking cessation programs. He organized the state’s first smoking cessation conference, a gutsy move in the heart of tobacco country. In 1981, Moira was born. Legend has it that she was a late walker because her father would not put her down.

In 1985, Bill accepted a job at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, WA as Director of the Center for Health Promotion (CHP). He co-founded the mobile health education Blood & Guts van, downtown’s Street Outreach Services (SOS), and a host of other community health programs. His tobacco cessation research became the foundation for the Free and Clear program, which remains strong today. Bill was known for his visionary leadership, cutting edge work (such as the SOS needle exchange, the first of its kind on the West Coast), and his wild socks. Building on program evaluation work that he began at UNC and CHP, Bill provided the vision for creating the Center for Community Health and Evaluation (CCHE), which became one of the nation’s most prestigious evaluation groups. The team he built at CCHE made major contributions to the fields of evaluation and community health improvement. Over the course of his career in public health, Bill worked in 7 countries outside of the US: Senegal, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Fiji, Nepal, and Turkey.

In his downtime, Bill spent hours in his wood shop crafting furniture and attempting to master the perfect dovetail joint. In a move to fulfill Madeline’s lifelong dream of owning a boat, BIll bought a kayak and the couple’s love affair with kayaking began. A few years later he built his first baidarka “skin boat”. Bill made four kayaks in total and the handmade beauties were strapped to the roof of the car all summer long. More often than not, his family would find him “working” nearby the parked car, waiting for someone to stop and admire the boats so he could enthusiastically tell the admirer about his creations.

When not in his wood shop or on the water, you could find him expertly completing crossword puzzles, planning gourmet meals, traveling with his wife and daughters, or stumping his friends, family, and co-workers with his latest piece of geography trivia. Thanks to Bill, many of his friends and family can now recite with ease the ten countries in the world with only four letters.

Bill was inarguably dedicated to his career and found much joy in his hobbies, but his role of father came first. He confessed later that the original bedtime stories he told nightly to Erin and Moira would sometimes take hours of his day to craft. He came up with the concept of “The Special Trip” for each daughter when she turned five: a week with him in which the destination, meals, and details were of their own choosing. His role of Dad extended to include neighbors, friends, and even lucky strangers on elevators, at airports, and in hotel lobbies. Bill had a way of noticing all in his path and making even the littlest ones feel important. When asked to name his favorite holiday, his reply came without hesitation- “Father’s Day. It is the most important day of the year to me.”

Bill is survived by his wife of 46 years, Madeline Powers, their daughters Erin (Amy Truitt) in Portland, OR and Moira (Gábor Szalontai) in Johannesburg, South Africa, his granddaughter Livia, and sister Karen Kelley (Frank, Jeff, Tim, and Michael Kelley) in Normal, IL. Bill is also survived by his family Jane, Marlee, and Wyatt Hein in Rochester, MN.

A memorial service will be held at Plymouth Church in downtown Seattle on Saturday July 16, 2016 at 2pm. A reception will follow.

All are welcome to sign the online guestbook below and add any messages or stories for the Beery family.