William Ellsworth Bugard Jr

Memories of Bill Bugard
1/29/2026
I first met Bill in September 1981 working for Master Cast Company in my senior year of high school. I started working as a draftsman part time after school. At first I was manually drawing the plant to scale and making paper cutouts we called "dolls" of the plant equipment to better organize it. Later started working on tooling, fixturing, machinery drawings, hydraulic drawings, Relay Logic electrical drawings and became curious how simple relays could be connected together to control industrial machinery. As I was making these new drawings from illegible ones I enlisted the help of Bill. He would explain in great detail the magic of how they worked in the field. This was the start of a great friendship. As time permitted during breaks and in between breakdowns Bill taught me how Aluminum and Zinc Die Casting machines worked.
The following year I enrolled in classes at Lansing Community College and continued working part time at Master Cast. I starting taking classes in electronics. I would reciprocate things learned with Bill throughout College while earning degrees in Electronics Communications and Digital Electronics. Bill was all ears. He would also try to relate what I was learning back to the real world applications in the plant. This mutual learning experience was the start of a great relationship and the start of my industrial electronics background.
Later on Bill introduced me to the first Allen Bradly SLIC 100 & SLIC 150´s PLC´s (Programmable Logic Controllers) new to the market. This was my first exposer to them. Bill would hand sketch the wiring diagrams and hand sketch the programmable relay logic code. I would draft them up into official machine prints.
We started teaming up building industrial machinery. We combined scrap machine parts with some new purchase part and some custom designed parts to build custom industrial machinery.
About the same time as I was completing college and started looking for a full time job I received word the company was being bought out by a Japanese company. It was recommended to stick around and see what happens. I was offered a starting position as a Manufacturing Engineer / Process Engineer with the company newly named Alpha Technology Corp. In my new role I was able to expand on the knowledge Bill and I acquired working together designing and building custom machinery. This is what I liked doing and became very good at it, very fast. It combined mechanical drafting, electronics, mechanical design, computers, and hands on machine assembly all together. This was the foundation Bill had helped lay for my entire career. If things got too crazy with the new staff, I knew I could always count on having an intelligent or laugh it off conversation with Bill to bring things back into perspective.
I took the first Jet ride of my life with Bill to Newark New Jersey for Toshiba Plastic Injection Molding Classes. This was obviously before GPS. We could not figure out how to get into the hotel parking lot. After driving by it several times, Bill got us to a building close by and I scaled a chain link fence to ask for directions to get into their parking lot. Bill was still talking about this recently. No desire to ever go back there again. Their roads are crazy.
One time after work I visited "Bills Barn"(s) and surrounding wooded area. This was the first time I had been inside, up close, to a real barn and it made a lifelong impression on me, sparking architectural ideas for future buildings.
One of the last machines we built together was a semi-automatic deburr machine for the anti-pick sidebar on a GM Ignition Lock project. Previously the plant had 2-3 people working 2-3 shifts to manually deburr these parts. For the price of a custom trim die, some air cylinders and a few electrical parts I designed and Bill and I built a semi-automatic machine that did the same volume with one operator on 1 or 2 shifts. After not receiving proper recognition for this project with its substantial cost savings and durability I determined it was time to look for another career opportunity.
With the foundation I receive working with Bill I ended up working on some of the largest Die Cast and Injection Molding Machines in the United States. I quickly became the lead Electrical Engineer with 5 draftsman working under me designing a multimillion dollar experimental Co-injection Molding Machines for UBE Heavy Machinery being utilized at Ford Motor Company.
In 1997 I left behind personal car parts in Bills barn and headed to Oregon/Washington. I ended up working as an Engineering in the Die Cast/ Foundry industry for over 35 years.
Coming full circle now I am forever grateful to Bill for laying the foundation of my wonderful career and financial success. When the opportunities arise I now try to pay it forward and mentor the younger generation like Bill did with me.
When returning to Michigan for family events I try find time to see what Bill is up to. I was really impressed by his personal tractor museum. We just saw him in November 2025 after Thanksgiving and in the cold barn he started his vintage Allis-Chalmers 1950´s model tractor faster than most people´s cars start. I reported this back to Oregon and Washington.
Bill was a great and wonderful man!! I am honored and privileged to spend so much quality time with Bill doing what we both loved. We will miss you buddy!

Brett Weed
Oregon/Washington, formally of Howell, MI