William Laxson

1922 - 2023

William Laxson
February 5, 1922 - January 5, 2023
Boise, Idaho - William Wallace Laxson 2/5/1922 - 1/5/2023
William (Bill) Laxson passed away just one month shy of his 101st birthday!! Bill was born in Ontario, Oregon, the youngest of 5 children born to Margaret Viola Strane and William Henry Laxson. He graduated from Ontario High School, where he was the salutatorian of his graduating class and where he also excelled in athletics. He was the high point man in a track meet in nearby Corvallis, Oregon setting a record at that meet that still stands today. He followed all his older siblings to Monmouth, Illinois to attend Monmouth College as a member of the class of '43, where he met his future wife, Mary Jean Walker. While at Monmouth, he was made a member of the Monmouth Sports Hall of Fame, excelling in and earning letters in both Track and Basketball in '43. He was also a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity there. Following graduation from Monmouth, he enlisted in the military (he wanted the Army but they were drafting for the Navy that day!). Following Navy boot camp at Camp Farragut in Northern Idaho, he went to California where he attended Medical School at Stanford University while on active duty with the Navy from '44-'46. At Stanford, he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, an academic medical society, as well as the Beta XI chapter of Alpha Kappa Kappa, a Medical Fraternity. He was discharged from the Navy in '48.
On June 22, 1947, Bill married his college sweetheart, Jean Walker in a garden wedding at her home in Kewanee, Illinois. They returned to Stanford where he graduated from Stanford Medical School with his medical degree in June, 1948. They then moved to San Francisco for his surgical residency, where he was the chief of surgical residents. Bill was drafted into the Army in 1951 due to the Korean Conflict, and after going through boot camp again, this time at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, he was sent as a surgeon to the 130th Station Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany and the growing family lived there from 1952-1954. He then returned to California and Fresno to complete his surgical training.
In 1957, they moved to Boise, Idaho where Bill joined the Veterans Administration Hospital as a surgeon. He remained with the VA from 1957 through his retirement in 1986. Bill was very proud of his long career with the V.A. and drew great satisfaction providing surgical care to American Veterans throughout that career. In addition to his career at the VA, Bill joined the Idaho National Guard in 1959, and advanced through the ranks there over the years, retiring as a Brigadier General in 1986. He was also the Idaho State Surgeon General for the National Guard for many years during that long career.
Bill and Jean's 5 children were born between 1950 -1958 (William Wallace Laxson Jr. and David Douglas Laxson, both born in San Francisco, California, Mary Suzanne Laxson Carroll, adopted in Landau, Germany, and Scott Walker Laxson and Nancy Lorraine Laxson-Highton, both born in Boise, Idaho). Bill leaves behind his wife of 75 years, Jean W. Laxson, his five adult children and their spouses, 8 grandchildren (two have spouses), and 3 great-granddaughters.
Bill had many interests over his long life. Snow skiing with the family every Wednesday evening at Bogus Basin; sailing his 14' Hobie Cat on Payette lake in McCall; snowshoeing through the McCall woods with Jean and family members; summers too numerous to count playing with his various grandkids on the beach in McCall; Harvesting gallons of huckleberries (to the gustatory delight of his entire family); singing in the church choir and participating in a very active church Ark Club generating lifelong friends.
Bill will be missed by all who knew and loved him, but he will always be in our hearts and memories!
Services will be held on Sunday, February 5 from 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. at First United Presbyterian Church in downtown Boise.