William B Tracy

William Boone Tracy, who has died Aug. 1, 2008, in Seattle at the age of 85. He spent his boyhood in Caldwell between 1935 and 1942, and graduated from Caldwell High School in 1941. The son of Paul and Dorothy (Luck) Tracy, William was born in Newport, Ore., in January 1923. He served during World War II in the Army Air Corps as a Link Trainer instructor. His interest in aviation continued after military service while he spent several years flying gliders in Arizona and California.
By 1948, Tracy had returned to Caldwell to study for a science degree at the College of Idaho.
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." That quotation from Mark Twain was taped to a cupboard door in William Tracy's Seattle house.
One thing Tracy did absolutely right was to marry Elizabeth Sullivan, a physiotherapist he met in Boise. After his marriage in 1951, William, known to all as Bill, transferred to the University of Idaho where he took his Bachelor of Science in Architecture in 1952.
The couple moved to Seattle where they "did right" again - Frank Lloyd Wright this time. After acquiring a fine, wooded, clifftop lot on Puget Sound, they commissioned Mr. Wright to design their house. The result was a bijou building where the Tracys have lived ever since, sharing it with a succession of beautiful cats. They had no children, but the house was shown to many Seattle school children and other interested persons.
While living in Seattle, Bill was employed as an engineer with The Boeing Company and as an architect for an architectural firm. Later he owned and operated a small business, Tracy Electronics.
Bill's death from pneumonia came just weeks before the couple's 57th wedding anniversary. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth, his sister Lorna Tracy Silkin, living in England, and Idaho cousins Joseph Tracy of Nampa, David Tracy of Homedale, Charles Rogge of Boise, and lifelong friend, Ralph Smeed of Caldwell.