William R. "Bill" Rhodes

Bill Rhodes, a recipient of Petaluma's prestigious "Good Egg of the Year" award in 1989, passed away at the age of 69 on February 8, 2012 after a long battle with lung disease. Bill moved to Petaluma in 1983 to open and operate PIP Printing for 12 years. Always active in his community, he was one of the founding members of the Petaluma River Festival and managed the event for 12 years. Known for his kindness to others, he was instrumental in 1993 in the search for missing child Polly Klass, printing and distributing thousands of flyers hoping for her return. Bill loved and worked on the Butter and Eggs Parade in Petaluma for 20 years. He was the Light Weight World Champion Wrist Wrestler in 1973 and 1996, and continued to referee those events for many years in a variety of venues around the world. He was the model for the Wrist Wrestling statue on the corner of East Washington and Petaluma Blvd. In 2008 he was a co-author of the book Celebrating Petaluma.
Bill was born in Belmont, CA, attended Carlmont High School in Belmont and Shasta College in Redding, CA. While living on the San Francisco peninsula, he worked for Penn Mutual Life Insurance for several years. Bill was active in the Coalition for Cystic Fibrosis and lobbied for the organization in Washington D.C. Bill was the consummate outdoorsman, fishing, hunting and camping were true passions of his. To that end, he traveled to the Capay Valley for deer hunting, Buck's Lake in Plumas County for fly-fishing, and Smith River for steelhead fishing.
Bill is survived by his loving wife and soul mate Mary Jo Rhodes of Penngrove, sisters Betsy Brown and Diana Rhodes, children Bridget Eklin, Tanya Peterson, Robbin Searle, Thomas Rhodes, and Danny Searle, step-children Brian Zeh and Timothy Zeh, grandchildren Brooke, Andrea, Aspen, Amanda, Ryan, Jacqueline, Alicia, Shannon, Shelby, Kegan, Gavin, Aiden, Luke and Bradley, and great grandchildren Cameron, Khalil and Zamayah. He was predeceased by his son Steven Foster.
At Bill's request, his body was donated to scientific research. A memorial of Bill's life is to be held in Petaluma at the Veterans Memorial Building at 1094 Petaluma Blvd. South on February 25th at 11:30am. Contributions in Bill's memory may be made to the American Lung Association.