William L. Alder

I worked for Bill as a journeyman forecaster at the Salt Lake City forecast office from 1982 to 1989. In all my 70+ years, Bill was the best boss I ever had. Intelligent, humorous, a mentor and a friend - he was all of these things and much more. I'm sad to hear of his passing but feel fortunate to have had the pleasure of knowing him.

Bill was of the most important people in my life and he did not know that. I was looking up his information to tell him of his significance to my life and found this obituary instead. I met Bill when I was a floundering student at the "U" with a 2.4 GPA. Bill approached me as we signed up for inorganic chemistry and asked if I would be his study partner. I had not learned the discipline of studying at the university level and Bill taught it to me. He was a superb taskmaster. We would go...

Bill Alder was an expert meteorologist and wonderful friend. When he retired from the National Weather Service in 2000 the Deseret News published a well-deserved tribute to him (see: https://www.deseret.com/2000/11/27/19540809/fair-skies-william-alder). Bill shared his knowledge, excitement and love of Utah's weather with everyone. His contributions to the science of Utah's weather and climate was extensive and his professionalism exists in many weather-related books and publications. Bill...