Dr. William C. Meyer

Dr. Willaim C. Meyer, 86, of Clovis, California enterered into eternal rest on Sunday June 26, 2022 at his home in Clovis, Californaia. A Celebration of Life Memorial Service will be held on Saturday August 5, 2023 at 10:15 AM at the Coin United Methodist Church in Coin, Iowa with Pastor Phil Wing officiating. Burial will take place at the Elmwood Cemetery in Coin, Iowa. Services were entrusted to Nishna Valley Funeral and Cremation Service of Shenandoah, Iowa.
Born in Northboro, Iowa April 5, 1936
Dr. William Claus Meyer passed away peacefully at his California home, with the view of the Table Mountain he loved so well, surrounded by loved ones, on June 26, 2022. He will be cherished in memory by his wife, Marie Dennise Schaefer Lakin Meyer; five children, Anita Catherine, Paul Claus, Andréa Marie, Ethan Buckley, and Nathan William; by his son-in-law, James, husband of Andrea, by his nine grandchildren, Jamie, Justin, Caleb, Elizabeth, Henry, Katherine, Owen, Alexander and Victoria Grace; by his great-grandchildren, Brylee, Aveary, Myla, Justin Jr., Malik, Layla, Paislee, and Zyren; as well as numerous family members who also miss him greatly. He was known for his wisdom, his brilliance, his masterful carpentry and stonework, his reading aloud, and his ability to make all those he loved feel cherished, valued, and irreplaceable. He was one of a kind.
William "Bill," spent his childhood and youth at the farm in Northboro, Iowa, assisting his father, John Claus Meyer, the son of German immigrants. He lost his beloved mother, Beulah Edna Buckley, at age 7, which added a deep sadness to his and his sister's childhood. Bill's elementary school was a one-room schoolhouse. He was a member of the church choir, the basketball team, and graduated from Northboro High School in 1954. Bill went on to Tarkio College, graduating with honors in 1958. He received an offer to join the Doctoral program in Education at Johns Hopkins University, but opted instead to enlist in the army and graduated from the Russian Program at the Army Language School in 1959. He served in Germany, before returning to the United States with his first wife, Audrey, teaching in Long Beach, CA, his first children joining the family, and completing a master's degree from California State University Fullerton in 1966. He and Audrey divorced when Anita was 3 and Paul 1 ½. A few years later, Anita, 7, and Paul, 5, were the flower girl and one of the ring bearers at his Alton wedding to Marie Dennise Schaefer Lakin, recently Miss Alton. Bill received his PhD from Ball State University a few months after their marriage in 1972. He was a professor at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, the university from which he later retired.
Bill, Marie and their three young children moved from Illinois to California in 1986, and soon settled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, in the vicinity of Yosemite National Park. Bill was a professor at several universities, retiring from California State University, Fresno many years later.
Bill loved long walks out on the Nature Conservancy, traveling extensively in Europe with his family, and completed a family letters translation project with his daughter, Andréa, and family friends in Germany, eventually locating and sharing them with his newly met, German cousin, Margot, whom he later learned was a descendant of Martin Luther. Bill was an avid editor and sought after for guidance and advice by each of his children and at least one grandchild in their literary and collegiate writings. He was an excellent letter writer and kept in close contact with each of his children and grown grandchildren despite distances separated by oceans or the expanse of the nation. He was the best correspondent any could have asked for, elevating the ordinary to timeless.
Bill was a member of many organizations over the years, including the National Council for Teachers of English, The Sierra Club, The International Wildlife Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, The Sierra Foothill Conservancy, and the National Audubon Society. A lifelong conservationist, he and Marie also placed their large farmland property in the tip of the peninsula of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, across the river from Mark Twain's childhood home, in a Bureau of Land Management program, returning it to native grasses and restoring the land to its richly fertile state, as well as setting aside cropland in a USDA program titled CRP.
Bill was an honored graduate at the 50th anniversary of his graduation from the Russian Language Program, in 2009, at the Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language Center's Anniversary Ball. He also walked his daughter, Andréa, down the aisle at the Cadet Chapel of the United States Military Academy in 2008.
Bill loved motorcycle trips and after his 70th birthday, at different times, took long road trips, with Paul, Marie, Ethan, Nathan, and cousin Layne Ibel. He was a giant of a man. One of his last requests was to be buried next to his beloved mother, Beulah, in Coin Cemetery, IA.
"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither
,Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king."
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring