Born August 5, 1940 in Memphis, Tennessee to parents Thomas and Trivette, and older brother Tom. He attended high school in Memphis before joining his brother Tom at the United States Naval Academy in 1962, where he received a Bachelor of Science with honors in engineering and the award of most improved student.
Upon graduation, William went to flight school in Pensacola, Florida where he trained to fly the A4 Skyhawk from an aircraft carrier. He made his first cruise on the USS Forrestal in the Mediterranean Sea and then three more deployments to Vietnam from carriers based in the South China Sea. He flew nearly 100 carrier-launched combat missions and received numerous awards and distinctions.
In between cruises he was invited to fly in the Whidbey Island Air Show, where he met Marcia Crowl from Wenatchee, Washington, who later became his wife and was the absolute love of his life for nearly 60 years. After Vietnam William was given orders to extend for a year due to the war in Vietnam. He and Marcia moved to California where he became a flight instructor at the Center for Naval Aviation in Lemoore (which a few years later was redeveloped and nicknamed “Top Gun”). William loved the Navy and he loved flying jets but ultimately he decided that what he wanted most was to be a doctor. Their first child, Cappy was born shortly after while enrolled in a year of Pre-Med studies in Memphis, where he and Marcia also enjoyed living by his parents.
At 29 years old, William was the oldest student accepted to Cornell Medical School, located on Manhattan’s east side. One week after the start of med school their son Alex was born. He and Marcia began raising their family in New York City, a place that they would both cherish for life. After medical school, William and his family moved to Los Angeles, where he did a residency in neurology at the University of Southern California / LA County General Hospital. During their time in Los Angeles, William discovered his passion and gift for wine, serving on the LA Times tasting panel for several years. After residency, William and his family moved again, this time so William could join a private neurology medical practice in Spokane. It was in Spokane where William discovered that he loved to cook and bake. He became especially good at baking French baguettes, something he said he had to learn because there was not yet a French bakery in Spokane.
William’s medical office was located at Sacred Heart, but he could also be seen bounding up and down the stairs (because he never took the elevator) at Holy Family, Deaconess, and St. Luke’s hospitals, where helping patients made him truly happy. Upon retiring from medicine, William supported his wife Marcia’s longtime desire to open a restaurant, and he always said, “We wanted to now do something together.” They opened Luna on the South Hill of Spokane, and he was proud to have built what many, including Wine Spectator, regarded as one of the best wine lists in the Northwest.
Throughout all this William discovered his love for running. It didn’t matter if it was at 5:00 AM and there were six inches of new snow on the ground, he simply loved running with his friends and family because he believed that, “the lack of alternatives made for the best conversations.” Over the years, William ran in Bloomsday too many times to count and completed nineteen marathons around America and in Europe, some of which were with his children. Another thread that ran throughout his life was a deep love for music and art, and he was a tremendous supporter of both in Spokane, including helping to launch the free summer concerts, Symphony In The Park, so that families could enjoy such wonderful music. Throughout his life he never stopped learning. He continued to read medical journals, take courses in geology at Eastern Washington University and anthropology at Cornell into his late 70s. As part of this, he went on Archaeological Society field trips to remote regions, where the graduate students (who were typically 40 to 50 years younger) were quite surprised and grateful for his gourmet cooking and amazing wine.
During this time William was over the moon to now have four grandchildren who accompanied him with and without their parents on many trips, during which he was able to share his style of curiosity which involved lots of walking, talking, looking, musicals, meals and museums.
William spent a good part of the last two decades fly fishing with a wonderful group of friends in all of the best rivers of Idaho, Montana, Washington, Alaska, and even did a “bucket list” trip to Kamchatka in Siberian Russia. When it became too difficult to fish, William still loved visiting grandchildren, travelling to their home in Mexico, cooking, and reading. For more than 50 years William read the entire Sunday edition of the New York Times front-to-back each week. He literally had ink on his fingertips when he finally passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, on the night of December 30th, 2021.
William’s life was extraordinarily rich and diverse, and he lived each day with passion, humor, curiosity, and a joy that inspired all of us.
William is survived by his wife, Marcia Catherine Crowl Bond, his daughter, Catherine McBride Bond and her family, Price Gledhill, Ella Bond-Gledhill and Henry Bond-Gledhill, his son, Alex Bond and his family Julie Tarlton Bond, Jack Charley Bond and Lulu Claire Bond, his sister-in-law, Nancy Koehn Bond, nephews and niece, Thomas Henry Bond Jr., Randal Koehn Bond and Sarah Bond Shepard.
Published by Spokesman-Review on Jul. 10, 2022.
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